What happened to Farooq Malik was not the first such case and unfortunately it will not be the last such case. The level of training of most physicians in Pakistan is extremely deficient. The training of the ancillary staff such as nurses is practically non-existent. Malpractice and medical abuse cases happen daily and routinely.
The death of Pakistani-American engineer Farooq Malik in a Lahore hospital where he had been practically dumped by the 5-star hospital where he had been first taken and given what turned out to be a lethal injection, has touched a lot of people, going by the number of messages I have received; having written about that tragedy in this space last Sunday.
One message from New York said, “Humanity has gone out of the new generation of Pakistani doctors. Contrast what Farooq Malik went through with what doctors used to do for their patients in the 1960s and 1970s. What has happened to our people? Will anybody take note of this moving story?” By anyone, I suppose, the correspondent meant “anyone in authority”, to which the answer to date is no.
Another, a doctor, wrote from Islamabad and said, “Doctors’ Hospital, Lahore (where Farooq was taken first) should have been able to deal with the problem. The rest is a story of post-operative mismanagement and greed.”
Another doctor, who lives in the United States, wrote, “I wish I could say it is hard to believe, but it is not hard to believe. Most of us have had bad experiences in Pakistani hospitals. I lost my brother and a sister-in-law due to lack of facilities at a Peshawar hospital. They died in my arms. When I talked to the medical superintendent a few days after the death of my brother, he said I was not sympathetic to their difficulties.”
Another doctor, also from the United States, wrote, “I think what happened to Farooq Malik was not the first such case and unfortunately it will not be the last such case. The level of training of most physicians in Pakistan is extremely deficient. The training of the ancillary staff such as nurses is practically non-existent. Malpractice and medical abuse cases happen daily and routinely. I would be surprised if there was any family in Pakistan that does not have some kind of malpractice case to report. However, the fact of the matter is that such medical malpractice in Pakistan can never come to an end until the people develop ethics. Government legislation and uproar in the media cannot fix this pervasive problem. Unethical behaviour is not limited to the medical profession in Pakistan only. Businesses in almost all facets of Pakistani society practice some type of fraud and underhand behaviour.
“Unless people develop the will to respect fellow human beings and a conscience that prevents them from causing hurt to others, there can be no end. It is a sad story and I hope that it does not happen again, but I fear that even as I type this email, some poor person in Pakistan is going through what Farooq Malik did.”
A lawyer from Pakistan wrote, “I have gone through this horror story and want to add something. When doctors make mistakes they bring mental torture and physical pain to the patients and their families. But when these mistakes are brushed aside, the distress deepens. Medical negligence is not something new, but it is not accountable in Pakistan. People accept pain and loss as something ordained, something that was bound to happen. Someone has to break the silence. At present, I am dealing with a number of medical negligence cases and interested to pursue Farooq’s case free of cost and expenses.”
A doctor from Lahore said he was saddened by what he had read but “unfortunately that is the reality of medical care in Pakistan. The first hospital where the patient was taken is also known as the ‘dakoo hospital’. As for the Punjab Institute of Cardiology, little can be said about it these days that is good. Recently when a radio station in Lahore started airing reports about all that was wrong at the Institute, the station was closed down and the owners arrested. The medical big shots in Pakistan are very well connected and do not care what people say about them.”
Another message addressed to Omer, Farooq’s son, said, “I have seen a lot of medical malpractice here in Pakistan. I wish things were different but I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. Make no mistake, most of the doctors in Pakistan’s hospitals are like butchers in killing fields, I know this correlation sounds absurd but it is true. I know your father can never come back, but the way you have lost him makes me sick. I wish there was some law which could deal with these doctors and put them behind the bars for the rest of their lives.”
A Pakistani living in Sharjah was shocked at the deplorable circumstances under which Farooq passed away in Lahore. He wrote, “Like many of my compatriots, I too have suffered much pain through witnessing the almost criminal behaviour of some Pakistani hospitals, especially when my youngest brother was shot three times in the chest just outside my house in Karachi by robbers. With Allah’s help he survived but has his left arm fitted with steel rods that were expensive but perhaps not necessary. At 27 years of age, he is walking around with two bullets lodged in his chest and abdomen that the hospital in Karachi could not remove. My brother is a PhD candidate in computer science and is currently working in North Carolina. My brothers and I have decided to do something about this problem.
“We are approaching this problem from a different angle though. We believe that quality healthcare is a right of every human being and the service need not charge any fees from the patients. We have established a free clinic in a poor suburb of Karachi as our pilot programme and will be offering telephone triage services to the community 24 hours, seven days a week within a year. Since this service will be rendered by qualified doctors without any incentives such as commissions and profits, we expect that such a service will be useful to our people, especially those who are frequently misguided by profit-oriented hospitals.
“We plan to provide the telephone triage service to charitable hospitals that do not have the financial strength to address in a timely manner the needs of all who knock at their doors. I believe, Inshallah, our service will also fill this gap without duplicating the efforts of NGO-run hospitals. We plan to have this service available nationwide by the third quarter of 2007.”It is people like Arshad Syed from Sharjah, who sent me this note, not flint-hearted killer doctors motivated by greed, who are Pakistan’s hope. Men like Abdul Sattar Edhi, a living saint, have shown the way. Let others follow.
