Srinagar, Sept 10: Lack of facilities in the periphery hospitals has resulted in the death of several victims of police and para-military CRPF firing in Kashmir during the ongoing unrest.
One of the ill-fated is Noor-ud-Din Tantray of Palahalan, Pattan, who received a police bullet in his right thigh and bled to death at SKIMS. Doctors in SKIMS said had doctors at a nearby hospital controlled Noor-ud-Din’s blood loss, he would have survived.
“Instead, without putting pressure bandage on his thigh injury the doctors in SDH Sumbal bundled him in their ambulance and sent him here,” said a senior doctor in SKIMS. “When Noor-ud-Din reached here, he had lost at least three liters of blood,” he said.
However, doctors in SDH Sumbal said Noor-ud-Din had already lost pulse and huge amount of blood.
A number of people whose lives, doctors say, could have been saved, were bought to hospitals- mainly SMHS and SKIMS here- but succumbed due to blood loss.
Doctors at SMHS Hospital said that they received five such persons who had succumbed to minor injuries due to loss of blood.
Another case is Showkat Ahmad Wagay of Amargarh Sopur. On July 30, he received injury in his leg. Without admitting him at Sopur hospital he was taken to SMHS hospital where he was declared dead on arrival due to loss of blood. “He didn’t have a fatal injury. But he had lost too much blood and by the time he was admitted in the hospital, he was dead,” doctors at SMHS Hospital said.
On June 29, 18-year old Shuja-ul-Islam of Aanchidora, Islamabad, received a police bullet in his shoulder. He bled to death at SKIMS. “Shuja could have survived had doctors at District Hospital Islamabad put pressure bandage on his injury. Without any treatment he was sent here,” said a senior doctor at SKIMS.
Doctors in SKIMS said the doctors at periphery shun their responsibilities and try to save their skin by these referrals.
A senior doctor at the hospital said the first hour after the trauma is crucial and if the emergency treatment is provided to the patient it will make a huge difference and matter in terms of life and death.
He also attributed the increase in fatalities to “extra time consumption at the scene of incident and transportation.”
If a person gets a bruise on his body in periphery, doctors there refer them to SKIMS or SMHS, he said. He said unfortunate part was that the Directorate of Health had remained unmoved after several such deaths. “They did not upgrade their ambulances. Even ambulances are so ill-equipped that a normal patient can develop any serious complication during the travel in the ambulance,” he said.
He said every trauma patient needs early resuscitation to maintain the body pressure. If a trauma patient was not given sufficient blood or fluids within one hour, his vital organs stop functioning, he said.
Senior doctors at tertiary care SKIMS suggested that patients with minor injuries should be shifted to periphery hospitals first and then to SKIMS or SMHS.
As a preventive measure, they said doctors at periphery should follow the ABC (Airway, Breathing and Circulation) rule for saving trauma patients. They said, “They should first check whether the patients could breathe properly through their airways. Then they should check whether their lungs were functioning properly. The last step of the rule is that for controlling blood loss, they should put two grey candela (thickest) needles into the patients through which they could provide him enough fluids including blood.” He emphasized ambulances should be well equipped. They should be having oxygen cylinder, trained staff who would be able to do resuscitation.
Talking to Greater Kashmir, Director Health, Dr Muhammad Amin Wani ruled out lack of accountability at periphery hospitals. He said Noor-ud-Din was in shock, without pulse and had lost blood at the incident site.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 11 Sep 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 11 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 12 Sep 2010 00:00:00 IST