Doctors suspended over Huma Akram's death

[Goodperson]

The news title in DAWN itself is wrong as the news content says Doctors licenses have been cancelled and not suspended.

Doctors suspended over Huma Akram's death

ISLAMABAD: Doctors blamed for the death of Pakistan cricket legend Wasim Akram’s wife have been suspended and had their practice licences cancelled, the health ministry announced on Thursday.

Huma Akram, 42, died due to multiple organ failure in India on October 25 this year after she was airlifted to Chennai when her condition worsened in a hospital in Pakistan’s eastern city Lahore.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had ordered an inquiry after former Pakistan cricket captain Wasim complained that poor medical facilities and negligence at the National Hospital and the Doctor's Hospital in Lahore led to his wife’s death.

‘The licences of 17 doctors have been cancelled over negligence in the treatment of Wasim’s wife Huma,’ the ministry announced in a statement after a meeting of the National Assembly standing committee on health.

Wasim told the committee the National Hospital charged 16.8 million rupees (200,000 dollars) for treatment and other charges to airlift the patient.

Federal Health Minister Ijaz Jakhrani told reporters the investigation revealed Huma’s death was due to the negligence of the doctors.

Wasim vowed to continue his fight to improve poor medical facilities which he believed contributed to his wife’s death.

‘I do not want any revenge because my wife cannot return,’ Wasim told AFP.

‘I want to launch a campaign against poor medical facilities and negligence so that such tragic deaths do not occur in future.’

The move by the Health Ministry will be welcome news also to the parents of three-year-old girl Imanae Malik who recently fell victim to negligence at the hands of medical staff at the Doctor's Hospital in Lahore.

Wasim, who played 104 Tests and 356 one-day internationals for Pakistan, said he will announce the details soon.

Wasim’s mentor Imran Khan, one of Pakistan’s most celebrated cricketers, built a cancer hospital in Lahore after his mother’s death in a similar bid to counter poor medical facilities in Pakistan.

 

[Goodperson]

First of all I don't think hospital demanded "200,000 dollars" from a highly influential person like Wasim.
Secondly cancelling licenses of Doctors is way too harsh which itself shows the influential power of Wasim even if one agrees that doctors were negligent towards medical treatment of his wife. But this seems to be Jungle raj doctors henceforth need to be extra careful towards treating patients with influential connections. And this is certainly not going to help masses.

 

[Draft]

If the doctos were negligent towards the wife of such an influential person, imagine what ordinary people might have gone through. Mistakes are accptable, negligence are not.

 

[FlyingEagle]

Its the height of irresponsibility. Very Sad news. Our doctors are not working fo Man kind they are working machines of Money............

 

[graphican]

Doctor's Hospital is already under review after 3 year old girl was given same injection 3times, the injection that is not for the treatment of children was used 3 times by the same great and most expensive hospital of the City. Shame on these people who are worse than butchers who still have respect for the animals they slaughter.

Regarding Waseem's wife, Waseem Akran is a celebrity and you can expect thousands of such incidents would have happened to people who were powerless and unable to make their voice heard by Prime Minister. This is a parameter to understand how this system is working.

 

[PlanetWarrior]

Doctor's Hospital is already under review after 3 year old girl was given same injection 3times, the injection that is not for the treatment of children was used 3 times by the same great and most expensive hospital of the City. Shame on these people who are worse than butchers who still have respect for the animals they slaughter.

Regarding Waseem's wife, Waseem Akran is a celebrity and you can expect thousands of such incidents would have happened to people who were powerless and unable to make their voice heard by Prime Minister. This is a parameter to understand how this system is working.

Any news on whether measures were taken against the doctor and staff at Doctor's hospital for the death of the 3 year old girl? There was a small article here about the child's death but no follow up news. I cannot seem to locate anything on the internet as well.

 

[Roby]

Doctor sends Wasim Akram legal notice, puts record 'straight'


LAHORE: On October 25, Huma Akram,42, wife of former cricketing legend Wasim Akram, breathed her last in Chennai’s Apollo Hospital, while on her way to Singapore.

Four days later, a grief-stricken Akram, asked for a government inquiry at the highest level into, what he termed sheer ‘negligence’ on the part of 19 leading doctors of Lahore, at the two private hospitals, in Lahore, where she was admitted and being treated from October 6 to Oct 19.

The inquiry committee set up on the directive of Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gillani, and conducted by a three-member doctor’s committee from Pakistan Institute of medical Sciences, concluded that the doctors were unable to diagnose Huma’s problem resulting in deterioration of her condition.

Following the inquiry, the National Assembly’s Standing Committee held another inquiry and recommended that the 17 doctors be suspended and their general practice licenses cancelled.

Terming the allegations ‘entirely inaccurate’ and ‘unsubstantiated,’ Dr Kamran Chima, 48, a pulmonolgist and a critical care specialist, who was among the 19 doctors to have faced these charges, has sent a 13-page legal notice to Wasim Akram refuting the latter’s allegations and saying Akram had influenced the ‘course of the inquiry proceedings’ by making incorrect statements.

Further, he has asked Akram to tender an ‘unconditional apology’ and pay damages to the tune of a hundred million rupees. Failing to send an apology, Akram, he said would have to cough up five hundred million rupees and slapped with a criminal suit for the ‘irresponsible conduct’. The entire amount, Dr. Chima said, would be contributed to Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust Hospital.

In an exclusive one-on-one interview to Dawn.com, 48-year old Dr Kamran Chima, breaks the code of silence in order to protect the Hippocrate’s Oath, he took some twenty three years ago.

Q. Why did Huma die?

She had developed extensive fungal infection called Mucormycosis that had blocked all her blood vessels. There is no reported case in the entire medical literature of the world in which this may occur without the person falling in certain risk groups…. Huma denied falling in those groups.

Such a condition can rarely be identified, as in Huma’s case, before the person dies. Hers became apparent two days after her death when the report of her skin biopsy was issued. The biopsy was done after she developed skin blisters on Oct 23, after she left Pakistan.

Q. So it was not medical negligence then as Akram alleges and the inquiry committee concludes?

No, definitely and certainly not! None of the top Infectious Diseases experts in Lahore who saw her, can be blamed for not diagnosing this particular infection. We knew she had an infection but did not know what the infecting organism was. Furthermore, some facts appear to have been concealed by the patient and her family and if that should be so, had they been revealed, it could have provided a clue and given direction and help to the doctors’ investigation.

Q.Had the diagnosis been made, would you have been able to save Huma?

Now that I know what the problem was, I don’t think she stood a chance. All her affected organs would have to be surgically removed.

Q. But when she was leaving for Singapore, did you think she’d make it?

Her condition was quite stable. She was not only conscious and breathing on her own but was able to walk. She was in a private room not in the intensive care unit which showed that she was fit to travel. I thought with routine dose of anti-biotics she would get well. Of course, at that time I did not know the infecting organism – therefore I was optimistic. But with hindsight, now that we know the infecting organism, one can say for sure that the optimism was ill founded.

Q. How many doctors and paramedics have been suspended and their licenses to practice cancelled?

There are to my understanding 19 consultants who are under threat of suspension but it is against the law as the Standing Committee of the Parliament, to my understanding (and I am not a lawyer) does not have the jurisdiction to pass such directives to the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) – particularly without even hearing the doctors.

Q. What do you have to say in your defence to the conclusions of the inquiry committee?

I have only seen the brief report issued by the inquiry committee – that too has not formally been provided to us. In that report there is no specific allegation of negligence against any particular doctor, just a general statement. What are the odds, I ask you, that all the 19 doctors have been negligent! Some of them had very little role to play. So the issue of negligence cannot be addressed without looking at the specific role of each doctor, and what he advised. Moreover, let us be clear – this inquiry committee report is not the final verdict. Nor can it be. Indeed, if any body wants to investigate this matter seriously, then a precondition would be a complete autopsy and toxic tests of the patient’s body – which is necessary for instance to answer the question whether she and Mr. Akram disclosed all the relevant facts to the doctors.

Q. Isn’t it strange that the Standing Committee inquiry never probed the doctors in question, nor did they even invite the investigators --the three-member team that conducted the inquiry – and without hearing all sides sent a directive to PMDC to suspend so many doctors? What do you make of this?

I have been so busy with my patients that I haven’t had the time to find the answer. But it is an intriguing question, which you may need to explore further.

Q. Talking to the press (Dec 10), Wasim Akram has said that doctors were unavailable for his wife? Do you refute that?

It hurts to hear this. We are all quite upset. We treated the wife of our national hero with utmost commitment and not just me, but the entire team of consultants. In the legal notice you will find a chronology of the phone calls, text messages between him and myself and between me and the various other doctors involved. Not for a fraction of a second, in all honesty, did I or other doctors, shrug off our responsibility towards our patient.

In fact, before she was to leave for Singapore, I painstakingly prepared a detailed summary of her medical history. Then I called Akram and he profusely thanked me for all the care I extended to her.

Q. Akram also mentioned that one of the doctors asked for $150,000 to arrange for an air ambulance service to ferry her off to Singapore?

He didn’t say ‘one of the doctors’ he said ‘Dr. Kamran Chima’ made this proposition. I would like to take the opportunity to clear this up. On Oct. 17, Akram told me his intentions of taking his wife to Singapore and that arrangements had been made.

Upon hearing that, by way of informing, and all in good faith, I mentioned that one of my patient’s families had arranged for an air ambulance which charged approximately $125,000 to shift her to the Cromwell Hospital in England. In my legal notice, I have attached the invoice which this other patient’s family has kindly provided me, to substantiate this. I don’t understand why Akram would bring this up and what the relevance is.

And why should I make any such proposition to arrange air travel.

He said on a lighter note: ‘I don’t have a flying license, seems my medical license is in jeopardy now…which will leave me with just my driver’s license to make a living of!!!’

Q. What took you so long in responding to Akram’s allegations?

We were obviously flabbergasted by his making these scurrilous public attacks, but we decided to initially keep quiet respecting the fact that he was grieving. But there seems to be no stopping him now. His vitriolic statements have gone too far and the record needs to be corrected. One cannot tolerate non-sense indefinitely.

 

[Spring Onion]

First of all I don't think hospital demanded "200,000 dollars" from a highly influential person like Wasim.
Secondly cancelling licenses of Doctors is way too harsh which itself shows the influential power of Wasim even if one agrees that doctors were negligent towards medical treatment of his wife. But this seems to be Jungle raj doctors henceforth need to be extra careful towards treating patients with influential connections. And this is certainly not going to help masses.

The healtcare system here in my country is pathetic no doubt. But in case of Wasim's wife some doctors who are familiar with what happend to her they say "she was using cocain, drugs, alcohol and had some other disease" the affects were so severe that her brain already was dead when were carried to the last destination.