Doctors at the Kashmir hospitals including SMHS and SKIMS worked non-stop to save lives as the number of the persons injured in forces’ action swelled for days together
|| AADIL ISHTIYAQ
On July 9 when Kashmir was rocked by protests against the killing of Hizb commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani, the SMHS hospital in Srinagar received 88 persons with pellet and bullet injuries from different parts of the Valley. The situation demanded a swift response. And when the number of the injured persons, most of them critical, swelled to 191 in less than 24 hours, the hospital authorities sensed the medical emergency that was knocking at the door. The first thing that the hospital, according to Principal, Government Medical College (Srinagar), Dr Kaiser Ahmad, did was setting up five trauma theaters to handle the growing number of cases. Then, all the specialties at the hospital, which function under the GMC, came together to function as a single team.
“The first few days were really demanding and everybody from doctors to surgeons to paramedical and nursing staff put in their efforts to save the lives and treat injured,” Dr Kaiser told Kashmir Leader. During the first week, after killing of Burhan on July 8, most of the doctors at the hospital didn’t go home for days together and worked beyond their duty hours and without proper food and facilities to take care of the injured persons. “We concentrated on the situation irrespective of the units the doctors belonged to as the aim was to ensure treatment of the injured,” said Medical Superintendent SMHS, Dr Nazir Choudhary. That the hospital had to put on hold all the routine surgeries to take care of the trauma cases gives an idea of about the large number of the persons, injured in action by the forces, which were shifted to the hospital for treatment.
“The first few days were really demanding and everybody from doctors to surgeons to paramedical and nursing staff put in their efforts to save the lives and treat injured,” Dr Kaiser told Kashmir Leader.
Apart from conducting over more than 30 major surgeries the doctors at the hospital treated more than 600 victims of the firearms including bullets and pellets. As per the hospital records around 190 persons with pellet wounds in their eyes besides another 150 persons with pellet injuries in other parts of their body were admitted at the institute during the first since July 9. “In normal days, we used to get posting once a week for surgical emergency. These days, we have to be present on alternate days,” said Dr Iqbal Salim, Associate Professor, Surgery, at SMHS Hospital. In the Ophthalmology Ward of the hospital, Dr Rashid Maqbool didn’t go home for nine eight days after July 8.
“On July 9 and 10, we carried out surgeries for the whole day and night. The surgical items exhausted but injured kept pouring in from different part of Kashmir,” he recalled. The situation was no different at SKIMS where dozens of youths hit on chest by bullets and pellets were admitted to various wards. “The situation is very grim and it is unimaginable to see these young people being maimed,” said a senior doctor at SKIMS while pointing towards a critical patient, who has been hit by a bullet in his lung. The doctor hadn’t gone home for seven consecutive days. Amid the curfew and continued unrest in the Valley the doctors at SMHS, SKIMS and other hospitals who worked beyond their duty hours to save the precious human lives proved to be the unsung heroes “The situation was really bad from July 9 to July 12.
The doctors worked day and night, without proper food, facilities and beyond their rosters to treat those injured in the ongoing unrest,” said a senior administrator at the SMHS, adding the doctors at the other hospitals too worked tirelessly during the period. “In the first four days, we received an injured person every 15 minutes. The scenes were horrifying. They would be drenched in blood and people would start shouting slogans as they were brought in,” a doctor told Kashmir Leader. With transport off the roads and amid strict curfew the doctors and paramedics in Kashmir hospitals braved odds to reach their hospitals to treat patients, mostly the victims of the ongoing unrest. In some cases doctors and paramedics travelled on foot for entire day to reach hospital for duties. “It has been a team effort which helped us to see through this situation,” said Dr Kaiser who is the pediatrician of repute.
