PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government claims to have taken revolutionary steps for the health sector of the province, but six innocent lives were lost because of the shortage of oxygen at KP’s largest infirmary, the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) on Tuesday.
A nurse at the children emergency ward of the hospital, who spoke to Pakistan Today on the condition of anonymity, said that four children suffering from pneumonia lost their lives because of the shortage of oxygen at the ward.
Six-month-old Zakir Khan, a year old Hamza and Muhammad Obaid are among those who died in the A, B and C wards of the hospital, she added.
Child specialist at the LRH, Dr Wali told that they were receiving around 800 child patients of pneumonia from different areas of KP, adding that pneumonia patients need special care and a proper supply of oxygen, otherwise, the chances of survival are low.
He also said that owing to the extremely cold weather in the northern areas, this time of the year is when pneumonia cases, as well as chest infection cases among children, are at rise. The parents should take care of their children and cover them with warm clothes in this season to save them from pneumonia, he added.
When the LRH was contacted, the spokesperson denied any shortage of oxygen in the children ward of the hospital and said that all facilities were available to the patients.
According to a report by the World Health Organisation, pneumonia accounts for 16% of the total child deaths making it the leading killer of children less than five years of age globally.
The report further said that Pakistan is among the top five countries affected by pneumonia.
