Troubled by unemployment, 20-year-old Zohaib, a resident of New Karachi, decided to end his life by taking poison, coupled with alcohol. But his suicide attempt only added to his miseries. Now his family will have to pay through the nose for his treatment at a private hospital in North Nazimabad.
After he tried to end his life, his family took him to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), but the state-run hospital claimed that it did not have enough ventilators and told his relatives to take the patient to another hospital. The treatment at the private hospital called Medi Complex saved his life, but the administration there refused to discharge him until his family paid the treatment charges.
But later he was released after the hospital administration was assured that the money would be paid in installments within six months. “My son Zohaib took poison along with alcohol after his mother taunted him for being unemployed,” said Aslam, the father of the youth. Zohaib had applied for a job in many national and multinational companies, but none of them responded. “In desperation, my son tried to commit suicide,” he added.
Giving more details about that day, Aslam said that he was at work when he received a phone call from his house informing him that Zohaib had tried to commit suicide and was dying. “I rushed to home and found my son unconscious. As I don’t have much money, I didn’t take him to the expensive private hospitals in the nearby North Nazimabad. Instead, I opted for the JPMC, where doctors provided him with first aid but later asked me to take him to another hospital as they didn’t have enough ventilators.
“One of my friends suggested that I should take Zohaib to Medi Complex, a private hospital near Five Star Chowrangi in North Nazimabad. As there was little time, I took him there and the treatment there saved my son’s life but I don’t have Rs 0.15 million to pay the hospital. My son was in a stable condition but the hospital management did not let us see him for five days and told us to arrange the money or they will remove one of his kidneys to cover the cost. However, they released him after we assured them that the money would be paid in installments.”
Medi Complex Administrator Iqbal refuted Aslam’s claim that they threatened to remove Zohaib’s kidney. “The JPMC medico-legal officer had declared that the patient would not survive. We admitted him to our hospital without even charging the Rs 2,000 admission fee and saved his life. However, when we asked the family to pay us the treatment charges, they refused,” he said.
“The hospital also helped the family by asking a philanthropist to pay Rs 16,000 on their behalf. They have paid only Rs 19,000 up till now and the boy has been discharged after they assured us that they would pay the remaining amount in installments,” he added. JPMC Joint Executive Director and In-charge of the Emergency Ward, Seemin Jamali said that there are only three ventilators in the Emergency Ward and the boy was referred to another hospital due to unavailability of resources.
“The boy had consumed poison along with alcohol and there were very little chances of his survival. The hospital could not have provided a ventilator to such a patient and neglected another with more chances of survival,” she said. “Almost 1,000 patients visit the JPMC OPD daily and it’s impossible to treat them all. The hospital is suffering due to non-release of funds and transfer of its administrative control from the Centre to the provincial government,” she added.
