8 infants die at Sahiwal teaching hospital due to malfunctioning AC
At least eight infants died at the District Headquarters Teaching Hospital Sahiwal in a span of 24 hours due to malfunctioning air conditioning in the children's ward, officials said on Sunday.
Additional Secretary Health Rafaqat Ali after a preliminary inquiry confirmed that eight children had died at the facility, even though the medical superintendent of the hospital, Shahid Nazeer, initially claimed that only three newborns had died.
He said the statements of staff stationed at the pediatric ward have been recorded and the inquiry report of the incident will be finalised by the evening and the persons responsible will be punished.
Taking notice of the incident, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar tweeted that he had ordered that "strict action" be taken against persons responsible for the negligence following an investigation.
"Incidents like this are unacceptable in any situation," he wrote, adding that the Punjab government's sympathies were with the loved ones of the deceased children.
Sahiwal Deputy Commissioner (DC) Zaman Wattoo recounted the chain of events leading to the infants' deaths in a letter written to the secretary of the Punjab government's Specialised Healthcare & Medical Education Department.
He said he had received a "frantic call" at around 12:40am on Sunday from an attendant of a patient informing him that infants had started dying due to non-functioning of air-conditioning system in the paediatric ward of DHQ Hospital Sahiwal.
"I hurriedly reached the ward and found the air-conditioning system out of order which had resulted in abnormal indoor temperature," he wrote, adding that the ward in-charge, Dr Sohaib, informed him that three infants had died due to "medical causes".
"Though three deaths have been officially reported, the possibility of unreported deaths cannot be ruled out," the DC warned.
He said he had one air-conditioning unit transferred from the MS office to the ward in view of the high temperature.
"It has been learnt that the AC system of the ward has not been functioning well for the last many days," Wattoo wrote.
"One is appalled at the insensitivity of the administration of the hospital towards the sufferings of the patients. The ACs of empty classrooms were running whereas the infants were crying in high temperature."
The DC in his letter recommended that biomedical engineer Luqman Tabish be suspended "for his failure to fix the AC issues" and an inquiry be ordered to fix responsibility on the hospital administration.