Medical Malpractice is a silent killer
Monday, December 7, 2009
I recently had the opportunity of meeting Aqeel the father of Imanae who recently succumbed to death due to dire malpractice at the Doctors Hospital. His entire family is on a rampage against the institution and the very principles of immoral medical conduct. Being a victim of this nemesis myself, I realized the pain and anguish that this family was going through. The detrimental difference between the death of Imanae and the hundreds and thousands of others who have died because of mismanagement and malpractice is that the family took the stand against this evil. No one has been able to successfully launch a campaign against the Doctors, hospitals, nurses and especially the institutional management. Times are now changing. A family has finally stood up against the prosperous and indigenous management would have been extremely successful in constructing more stories at the cost of deceiving millions from all people alike.
It is a known fact that the healthcare industry and the quality of Medicare is directed proportional to the economic and social well-being of that nation. Nations that have placed their future in ensuring lives have given birth to new technologies. Technologies that speed up diagnosis and eliminates or at least drastically reduces the human error. The greatest battle lies within the realm of diagnosis. The objective of life and death revolves around the basic understanding of what the doctor perceives at that given time. Human atrophy is caused by the wrong perception and understanding of Doctors all across the world. The only difference is that in Pakistan there is no checking balance. There is no institution that governs the moral and social obligations that Doctors have to this nation and its people. And if there is such a thing as an institution than it is not executing and monitoring its domain. A dead dog is simply of no use to its master. And this is a very similar scenario of Pakistan's medical industry.
“I pledge to shut down the institution that has given my daughter that was caused because of simple negligence” speaks out Aqeel. His voice completely shattered by the turmoil that he is gone through over the last 10 days. He has lost his only daughter to the hands of one of the most corrupt and unchecked institutions of this land.
“We have spoken to the chief minister and believe that case will be immediately taken up” speaks the grandfather of the three-year-old that died tragically in the hands of her father. The father has recently started a major and massive campaign against Doctors hospital. He is also set up a portal http://www.imanae.co.uk/ so that the world can realize and feel the pulsation of a dying heart. One cannot even start imagining how one can even out live an incident like this. How can you be prepared to bury your only angel because some nurse gave the wrong injections? Where else in the world to children as adorable as this one die? Where else in the world do quacks practice so openly? Where else in the world does medicine have so many different types of quality? Where else in the world do you see millions of people silent as they bury their loved ones?
My father also died because of malpractice in this country. He was a professor. Many of the current political brass and bureaucracy prowess have been taught by him. I will always have impressible memories of my father. He was one of the few foreign teachers that decided to come back and serve this nation. And yet, he died because doctors at Punjab Cardiology gave him the wrong injection.
These are just not numbers. These are dreams, ambitions, and hopes that have died and have been buried deep within our own lives. These are faces that we will always be in search of. These are hands and smiles we will be forever in need of. These are loved one that we will cherish till our own last breath.
People tend to forgive god as one buries ones loved ones. This is the plagiarizing defeat of life. One has to come to terms with it. But without reason and rhyme, this is insanity. Hundreds of people die in the medical hospitals today, no doctor or staff has been reprimanded. Nothing has come to date. I admire Aqeel and his bravery. He has given meaning to the long journey that no one was ready to take on. With such dilemma against one, one takes to a simpler and calmer road.
Today, many are with Aqeel. I guess many are with him because they are fighting their own battle. They are in search of peace with their own souls and the injustice that took place. Justice is blind. But so is malpractice.
