Beware! If you are grievously injured and going to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, make sure you have some life saving injections and an artificial respiratory device with you. And keep on praying to God for a doctor-He sends a doctor for you.

If your injury is in the head, make sure you reach the hospital before 2:30 pm or else you may have to wait till next morning for surgery, no matter how serious your injury is.

Commonly used life saving Injections like cortlcoslne, adrenalin, dopamine and tetanus toxoid are not in supply at the country's biggest and busiest hospital where about 26.000 patients were admitted for emergency treatment last year. The suction and oxygen pipeline systems often do not work, riking life.

If more than one injury patient come at the hospital be-yond the 8 am - 2:30 pm office hours, there is none at the Casualty Wards (ward 30 and 31) to attend them.

How does the hospital cmer-' gency handle patients with serious injury? To find out. this correspondent spent ten hours at thfe hospital from 4 pm on Thursday to 2 am on Friday last

Precisely at 6:03. five young men carried a bleeding young boy to the emergency. The patient was received by a ward boy. A ticket was purchased at Tk 6 and the Emergency Medical Officer signed it.

The patient. 17-year-old Hanif. a mechanic at a vehicle workshop, was sent to Ward 30. As the trolley rolled, blood dropped from his mouth and

At Ward 30. (neurosurgery department), a ward boy was attending another patient grievously Injured in the head. Hanif had to wait.

Hanif was injured while repairing an automobile at the workshop at Karwan Bazar. He became unconscious and was bleeding profusely.

When Hand's turn came, he was examined by the ward boy. who reported to the on-duty doctor, resting in the doctors' room at the corner. The doctor signed the ticket for admission. Hanif was sent for X-ray.

While X-ray was on. a list of life saving drugs Including Fl-clox-500 mg and Ranitidine HCL was handed over to Selim, the owner of the workshop, who brought Hanif to the hospital. "Bring the injections. Without these. Hanirs condition may deteriorate." came the Instruction from the ward boy.

Selim sent one of the young men to bring the drugs, most of which were similar having different brand names. But the ward boy could not explain the

From Page 1 need for such similar drugs.

At the adjacent Casualty Ward (ward 31) at 7:07, several young intern doctors were desperately trying to save a bullet -hit patient. Abdul Khaleq. 27. Sonic anxious relatives and friends of the patient were also

The doctors soon connected the oxygen pipeline to Khaleq's nose. But to the utter disappointment and anguish of all. the system did not work. It was detected that the pipeline oxygen system was not working. The doctors then requested for an artificial respirator from another ward.

In the meantime. Khaleq's relatives purchased life saving drugs worth more than Tk 1400 from outside as there was no supply at the hospital. But it was too late. Khaleq died at 7:32.

"We do not have separate space for examining critically injured patients. We have to do this at the ward despite the fact that other patients may suffer trauma seeing these scenes." said Dr Md Snaflur Rahman. Assistant Registrar of the Casualty Department.

Dr Rahman also acknowledged that the department does not have supply of essential drug although so many emergency patients are treated there every day.

One of the intern doctors said. "We deal with such emergencies almost every minute. The situation gets worse particularly on a day like this when the hospital administration remains closed for 24 hours."

At around 7:30. an unconscious head Injury patient was brought to the neurosurgery ward. He was bleeding. His nervous attendants appealed to the lone on-duty doctor to examine the patient. But Dr Zahid, Assistant Registrar of the department. had to examine too many patients at the same time. Bc-laytul Kabir Ratan. a victim of road accident, had to wait.

Later, at about half past nine. Ratan failed to rcspqnd to pain stimuli. Ratan was unconscious till the correspondent

left the hospital.

Referring to Ratan. Dr Zahid said. "He needs brain surgery but we can not do that without C T Scan. The service is not available at the DMCH after office hour."

But Ratan can not be moved to a private diagnostic centre for C T Scan as his case is 'very' serious'. Any further movement may endanger his life, the doctor said.

Dr Zahid looked worried. Luckily, another DMCH doctor of ENT Department was visiting the ward at that time. He lent a helping hand.

Another doctor was called from the Intensive Care Unit. Dr Zahangir Kabir came. Immediately grabbed the suction , machine and quickly applied It. But things were getting worse and finally Ratan was shifted to ICU and put on a life saving ventilator.

Most of the doctors this correspondent talked to said there was lack of management and basic facilities at the Emergency. They also blamed the government and policy makers for their alleged inaction. "What is the priority? Saving lives or buying more useless medical equipment?" angrily asked one doctor.

When contacted. DMCH Director Brigadier Badrul Munir said, “Despite our Intention to keep the CT Scan in service round the clock, we cannot do that due to lack of sufficient films and chemicals from the government (CMSD). On the other hand, we do not have enough money to purchase the items, knowing that people are ready to pay."

Regarding free supply of drugs. Brig Munir said, "It is very unfortunate that we are unable to supply commonly used drugs in a hospital where mostly poor people seek treatment. The problem lies at the policy level. We have huge demand but we do not get enough. So. there is a huge gap between supply and demand and obviously people who are supposed to get free supply have to purchase drugs on their own.