Radiologist dies tragically onboard ambulance

By Mukhtar Alam
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

An expert in medical imaging techniques died of COVID-19 onboard an ambulance in Karachi on May 3. 

The death of the radiologist, Dr Furqan-ul-Haq, a retired officer of the Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases (KIHD), was highlighted by social media as well as television channels, claiming that he, onboard the ambulance, tried at a couple of hospitals for an intensive care intervention but failed. 

His colleagues and acquaintances cursed the hospitals for not accommodating him in his critical condition of life and regretted that the physician who served the city of Karachi and the country could not get hold of a hospital bed in his last moment. “Eventually he was brought dead at a government medical university hospital.". 

Dr Haq was associated with a private sector health facility before he tested positive for COVID-19 and was suffering from shortness of breath (dyspnea) for last one day at home where he had quarantined himself after knowing that he was infected with the virus. 

A doctor related to the deceased shared that her uncle (Dr Haq) was initially unwilling to visit any hospital saying he has got daughters and there will be enormous social pressure in the wake of Coronavirus illness. 

‘The government should look into the aspects of social and legal pressures on the patient in the context of COVID-19,” the doctor suggested. 

In the meantime, an insider informed that COVID-19 patients in considerable number had lost their lives while fighting the diseases at home. 

“However, little is known about what the administrative and health officers have been doing with such at-home patients in the context of medical treatment and related social and financial issues.” 

Another keen observer said that when the concerned authorities were unable to offer life supporting machines to COVID-19 patients with severed breathing it created doubts in people’s mind about the governmental claims and exposed its relevant strategies, if any.