Fire at Services Hospital

LAHORE : The Surgical Emergency of Services Hospital Lahore was closed after a fire erupted due to short circuit on Saturday morning.

An immediate evacuation of patients began after the fire broke out. Under the supervision of SIMS/SHL Principal Prof Dr Mahmood Ayaz and Medical Superintendent Dr Iftikhar Ahmad, the administration, doctors and nurses evacuated the patients and shifted them to other wards.

However, the eye-witnesses said that the patients suffered due to lack of oxygen supply, which endangered their lives during the evacuation. A 50-year-old patient, Shamim, lost her life due to lack of oxygen supply in Medical Emergency during the process. “We kept pleading to the administration to provide oxygen to our patient, but they did not heed our pleas and the patient expired in the process,” alleged Iqbal Bhatti, brother of the patient. However, the administration denied the allegation, saying that no casualty took place during the evacuation process.

The incidence took place in the New Operation Theatre at 11.15am. The sister In-charge reported the incident to the Additional Medical Superintendent at about 11.25 am, most probably due to short circuiting. The administration immediately called Rescue 1122, which immediately reached the hospital and put out the fire. The principal, the medical superintendent and Professor Waris Farooka, Prof

Imran and Prof Tayyaba Waseem and Nursing Superintendent Fazeelat Lal rushed to the site and helped the evacuation. Due to dense smoke, the patients were immediately evacuated from the Medical, Surgical Emergency, NOT and shifted to Surgical ICU, Surgical Unit-I, Surgical Special Unit, Medical Unit-I and Medical Unit-IV.

At the time of the incident, two operations were going on in the operation theatre and both patients were safely evacuated under anaesthesia. It was a remarkable feat done by the doctors and paramedical and nursing staff. The operations were resumed and successfully completed.

Two healthcare workers and two doctors suffered from inhalational injury and were admitted to Surgical Unit-I, where they were examined by Pulmonology Department. Principal Prof Dr Mahmood Ayaz examined all the patients and later confirmed to the media that they were all out of danger. “No causality due to fire and smoke occurred,” he told the media.

Earlier, he said, our first target was to safely evacuate all patients besides ensuring safety of the doctors, nurses and hospital staff after the fire incident. He said that the boiler remained safe but the damage assessment is going on. “The repair of electrical wiring has been done and electricity restored and repair of oxygen piping and compressor is going on,” he informed, adding that once the oxygen supply is restored to the satisfaction of our biomedical engineer, the emergency will be restored.”

SHL Medical Superintendent Dr Iftikhar Ahmad said that a committee had been constituted to investigate the cause of fire and damage assessment.