ISLAMABAD/RAWALPINDI: The heat wave plaguing most of the country claimed lives of at least nine people due to heat stroke complications in a week.
According to the district administration, the deaths were reported in the twin cities within a week.
As per the administration, four of the patients were brought to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Islamabad, where three of them died of heatstroke complications on last Wednesday, while another on Thursday.
During the last few days, Islamabad witnessed extremely hot weather, with temperatures touching 38 degrees Celsius, which felt like 48 degrees C on Saturday.
Meanwhile, sources said that despite such hot weather conditions, the air-conditioners were lying out of order in the PIMS, the largest healthcare facility in Islamabad.
They said the lack of air-conditioning could be the cause of the heatstroke patients’ deaths, while because of the same issue a large quantity of life-saving medicines, vaccines and medical liquids lying in the hospital’s pharmacy are also feared to have lost their efficacy.
They said the cooling system of PIMS emergency, surgical, CCU and ICU units has been out of service for several months, also leaving many doctors sick with heatstroke.
Young doctors also protested the lack of air-conditioning at the hospital in front of the PIMS executive director’s office.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the health ministry says that repair work is going on to improve the hospital’s cooling system.
