UMERKOT: A sanitary worker who fell unconscious while cleaning a drain lost his life after doctors at Civil Hospital Umerkot allegedly refused to treat him until his body was washed.
Thirty-year-old Irfan and his three fellow workers had stepped down into a manhole at Chhore Road on Friday for a routine inspection when they fainted due to suffocation, the victim’s brother, Pervez, said.
All four workers were rushed to Civil Hospital Umerkot, where doctors told the Irfan’s attendants to wash his body before they would begin treatment. Irfan died hours later in the government hospital in front of doctors who were allegedly reluctant to treat him because he was drenched in sewage sludge.
Pervez said that he cleaned his brother’s body after which the doctors sent an oxygen cylinder. “But the cylinder was empty. And, before they could arrange another cylinder, he [Irfan] died,” he told local media. After Irfan breathed his last at the hospital, the family, community and locals staged a sit-in demonstration along with the body on the inter-district road connecting Umerkot to other parts of Sindh.
The protest lasted for 10 hours before ending on assurances by Additional Deputy Commissioner Subhash Chandar Sham that an inquiry would be conducted against the municipal authorities and the doctors.
Umerkot police, on the complaint of the victim’s father, Nazeer Maseeh, registered an FIR against six suspects, including three doctors. Police said Dr Jaam Kunbhar had been arrested while raids were being conducted to arrest the other two doctors, Dr Yousuf and Dr Allah Dad Rathore.
