No paediatric intensive care unit at DMCH!
As if the tragedy of an infant losing most of his family members in a terrifying accident was not enough. One and a half year old Tasfir Alam Rabbi, even after surviving the road crash in Narsingdi that killed his mother who was carrying him on her lap, could not stay alive because the largest public hospital in the country DMCH, did not have the necessary medical unit to treat him. It was an astounding revelation that Dhaka Medical College Hospital does not have a paediatric intensive care unit that most probably could have saved little Rabbi's life.
This pathetic truth we had to find out through the death of this hapless child who had been taken to this hospital and then kept waiting with his relatives who were eventually informed that it did not have the necessary facilities and hence the child should be taken elsewhere. But by the time Rabbi's relatives took him to a private clinic in Mohammadpur, his condition had deteriorated further and a few hours later, he passed away.
It is unthinkable that any child in such critical condition will have to be turned away from a hospital. It is unbelievable that for decades, no one, not even the hospital's successive directors, noticed this gross inadequacy. A paediatric department of any hospital must have an intensive care unit, more so if it is one that is government-run and where the majority of patients are rushed to for emergency care.
The morbid reality is that accidents or serious medical conditions will bring in infants and children to the country's most well known hospital. There is no excuse for it not to be fully equipped to treat them and this is something that needs immediate government attention.
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