A theatre in operation, at last

It was an unusual event at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital as doctors and nurses at the paediatric department bought toys, inflated rubber dolphins and bunnies. And then, they marched into the newly built room the department's first operation theatre (OT).

They were all in smiles as they placed the toys around 11-year-old Sumon, who has been waiting for the last one and a half months for surgery in the abdomen but could not get the treatment because of the department not having any OT of its own. Today at 9:00am, he would be operated upon.

Heads of other departments and DMCH Director Brig. Gen. Nazmul Huda would also join the happy occasion.

Until yesterday, the department used to borrow OTs from other departments for a few hours for both routine and emergency operations.

As such, many children had to wait in queue for surgery and many even died because of unavailability of OTs in time. On many occasions, surgeons of the paediatric department had to argue with the general surgeons for borrowing the OTs in emergency.

"It is a happy occasion for us. From tomorrow, we will no longer have to depend on others to save a few young lives," said Associate Professor Md Abdul Matin, head of paediatric at the DMCH.

"The Daily Star report on September 27, 2002 on the crisis of OTs really helped speeding up the process of OT allocation from the health ministry. We have been demanding the OT since construction of the newly built OT complex at the hospital almost three years ago, but no one paid heed to our requirement."

The new OT, on the 2nd floor of the OT complex, still lacks adequate surgical instruments, a paediatric ventilator and incubator.

Most of the waiting patients would now be able to go home earlier because of the department's having its own OT. On an average, patients had to wait for three months for urgent operations.