LAHORE: A young patient recently committed suicide in the COVID ward of the Mayo Hospital for being unattended for a long time.
After remaining ignored during his long isolation period, the patient used a fruit knife to slit his throat at the North Medical Ward.
The massive uncontrollable bleeding led to his immediate death, a senior official said. The administration called police, who also investigated the incident, adding that the preliminary inquiry showed that the patient was not mentally stable. He picked up a fruit knife and slit his throat probably in protest against his week-long isolation where he was attended by a doctor hardly once, the official said and added that the doctors had shifted him to the emergency ward with pro-found bleeding failed to save his life.
According to some media reports, the deceased, 35-year-old Kashif, belonged to Gujranwala. The health secretary noticed the incident and constituted an inquiry committee headed by Additional Secretary Health Amir Ghazi. The committee was asked to submit the report as soon as possible to decide whether any negligence was behind the incident.
The secretary also issued directions to the heads of all the government teaching hospitals to take care of the Covid patients to avoid such incidents in the future.
The official said the treatment protocol for the Covid patients in the isolation wards of the public hospitals had been a matter of serious concern.
Most of the patients were left unattended by the doctors during their isolation period that would sometimes exceed two to four weeks, depending on the severity of the infection.
He said the patients had to face psychological issues due to panic and the unfriendly atmosphere of the Covid wards. There were numerous complaints that the patients were largely left at the mercy of either paramedics or the nurses.
A similar incident in March last year in the Mayo Hospital had sparked backlash when an elderly Covid patient had died after being neglected by the medics for many days.
