AN elderly woman Mazkura Ayub (63) can’t walk as she fails to put her feet flat on the ground and also move three fingers of her left hand. These all happened because of negligence in her treatment at an expensive hospital in Dhaka– named United Hospital. The Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council (BMDC) has recently cancelled the practice licence of medicine consultant Nazmul Islam for “inefficiency and violation of standard protocol”. Newspaper reports said Mazkura was admitted to the hospital on April 1 last year for treatment of drug- induced electrolyte imbalance. She was conscious and oriented at the time of admission. On Nazmul’s advice, Mazkura was treated with “immediate correction of the imbalance” and was given saline infusion at the Special Care Unit and later at the High Dependency Unit. She was there for 10 days.
As her husband Lutfe M Ayub saw a rapid correction of the sodium imbalance in blood culture reports on the morning of April 4, he raised the alarm and asked the doctor about its potential side effects. As the patient’s condition did not improve even after a week since release, Mazkura’s family took her to Samitivej Hospital Bangkok when they learned that she had suffered Central Pontine Myelinolysis. Her brain cells were damaged, which was caused by the rapid medical correction of sodium deficiency at United Hospital, doctors at the Bangkok hospital said. The BMDC investigation team came up with similar observations.
We remember another case of severe negligence where a woman’s two kidneys were removed by a doctor during an operation at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University. It was revealed when the patient was not getting well at BSMMU and her family members took her to another hospital. There are several identical incidents in our country but most of the victims don’t get even any compensation for the doctor’s mistake or negligence. The doctors are also set scot free after committing such blunders.
We do believe, some of our doctors are world class standard but it doesn’t mean that they are above of accountability.
