LARKANA: A senior doctor of Neurosurgery Department of Chandka Medical College Hospital (CMCH), Larkana, Dr Ishrat Raza Mangi, was severely beaten by the attendants of a road accident victim who was brought in critical condition here on Saturday night in the casualty department.
According to details, a 10th-grade student named Wajid Ali Totani Chandio reportedly fell down from a moving bus of a marriage party while he was dancing on its roof. He received serious head injuries and both his legs were also fractured.
The patient was examined by Dr Mangi and the attendants were asked to arrange three pints of B positive blood so that an emergency operation could be conducted. The relatives, however, arranged only two pints while the third was delayed and the patient expired.
The attendants started beating the doctor saying that due to his negligence, the younger brother of the groom expired. The police deployed at the casualty department ran away and did not save the doctor.
The heirs, later, took the body and again protested on SSP Office roundabout. The doctor was arrested and locked up and was also maltreated by Civil Lines Police Station SHO Ubaidur Rehman Dharejo, said the doctors.
On hearing this news, the doctors of Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) got agitated and burnt tyres and held a protest demonstration along with the paramedical staff of the CMCH, forcing the police to release the doctor immediately.
Sources at the Neurosurgery Department said that Dr Mangi is the only doctor who attends every emergency patient and conducts operations without the support of any postgraduate doctor.
Later, Larkana SSP formed a committee to lodge an FIR against the protesters.
Dr Ikram Tunio, Dr Shah Baig Chandio, Dr Mahboob Shah, Dr Anil Kumar and other doctors of PMA’s Larkana chapter said that duty doctors were unnecessarily harassed and the police, instead of providing them protection, opted to become spectators. They added that Dr Mangi was locked up without any lawful authority and forced to sit with criminals, which shows highhandedness of Larkana police.
They demanded the arrest of the SHO and deployment of Rangers outside OPD and casualty ward to secure their lives, otherwise, they will boycott the OPD duties and move court.
On the other hand, the heirs of the victim said that when they reached the casualty on Saturday night, RMO Dr Rahim Sheikh was absent. They said that they requested the duty doctors to save the life of the boy but they showed negligence resulting in the youngster’s death.