Doctors' negligence case: Hospital administrator, bank official told to appear before court

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed administrator Medicare Hospital, Multan and regional head Bank Alfalah to appear before the court on April 22 in connection with a case of Fakhra Ahmad, who has been lying in coma because of the doctors' negligence. A three-member bench comprising Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Muhammad Sair Ali and Justice Tariq Parvez gave the directives on a suo motu of the incident.
Fakhra Ahmad, a banker, was allegedly administered an overdose of a painkiller injection by the medical staff of Medicare Hospital, during her child's birth on August 23, 2009, resulting in damage to a major part of her brain. She went into coma, while the baby she delivered also died due to brain damage.
Additional advocate general, Punjab informed the court that provincial government has allocated 27,000 dollars for treatment of Fakhra Ahmad. Earlier it was demanded that she should be shifted to a hospital in China where doctors have agreed to treat her through stem cell therapy.
The father of Fakhra Ahmad said the amount allocated for the treatment of his daughter would not be sufficient. Additional Advocate General said the provincial government would bear all the expenses of treatment of Fakhra Ahmad. The court also directed the government to provide family of Fakhra the travel documents so that they could take her to China for treatment.
During hearing, counsel for Medicare Hospital, Munir Paracha requested for adjournment of the case, however, the court turned down his request. Sarfraz Gul who was earlier issued notice in the case told the court that he was not the Administrator of Medicare Hospital Multan, but the in-charge of maintenance department. He said he was wrongly involved in the case and he had not treated Fakhra.
The court then directed Dr Altaf Rana, administrator Medicare Hospital, Multan to appear before the court on April 22. The father of Fakhra Ahmad informed the court that his daughter was employee of Bank Alfalah but the bank has stopped giving salary to Fakhra after she went onto coma. The court directed Regional Head Bank Alfalah to appear before the court on next date of hearing to explain their position.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had taken a suo motu notice of the incident and on his direction Punjab health secretary had constituted a three-member probe committee comprising Multan EDO (health) Dr Iftikhar Hussain Qureshi (chairman), senior consultant and Fatima Jinnah Hospital, Multan, gynaecologist Dr Nighat Parveen and senior consultant and Civil Hospital, Multan, surgeon Dr Saeed Rabbani (members).
In its report compiled on December 27, 2009, the committee held doctors and administration of Medicare responsible for the incident. It stated there was contributory negligence on part of treating doctors and overall responsibility of this gross negligence rests with the part of medical administration of the hospital.