Anesthesia overdose leaves little girl brain damaged, family alleges

SRINAGAR — An overdose of anesthesia by the doctors at a private hospital here in central Kashmir’s Srinagar district has damaged the brain of a 14-month-old baby girl when she was undergoing treatment a year ago here at ASG’s Eye Hospital Qamarwari.

The family of the girl, while protesting here in Press Enclave, said the doctors at the ASG Hospital don’t even bother to accept the guilt rather challenged them to file a court case against them.

Farooq Ahmad Bhat, a resident of Ali Kadal, father of the baby girl said that her daughter Zikra, who was 14-month-old having some eye issue, was taken to ASG Eye Hospital in Qamarwari for eye treatment.

Farooq said, “Soon after we approached the doctors there, they prescribed us some exercises and eye drops, which didn’t work. After one and a half month, when we approached Dr. Adil, he said that she will be administered some drugs through injection for which anaesthesia was mandatory. It’s a short procedure and the process would only take 15-30 minutes.”

“However, when we were motivated by the doctors, the baby girl was taken for the treatment where overdose of anesthesia was given to her at the theatre following which the doctors claimed she is alright and asked us to take her home,” he said.

Bhat said instead of 15-30 minutes, Zikra was taken out from theater after one and half hour and when her mother carried her daughter in her lap, she found her overweight and cold.

“A technician kept on bringing the doctor to check the stats, but the doctor kept on repeating that it was all right. On our insistence, they told us to take the child to Lal Ded Hospital’s Neonatology department, but we refused and told them we will take the child to GB Pant or SKIMS. At SKIMS, immediately without any documentation, the child was directly admitted in the ICU, where she was treated for 26 days, and her condition was going from bad to worse,” added Farooq.

He said, “Zikra was later referred to outside state for further treatment and was admitted in Vedanta, Apollo and other premier hospitals, but time was gone and the doctors there told us that it was very late now to treat her.”

“Since the negligence of doctors, which has damaged her brain, Zikra is not able to walk or move her arms. They initially supported us in taking expenses, but later stopped that also. We don’t want other patients to suffer like we are suffering,” he added.

“Our children are afraid, they feel scared when we talk of the doctors and hospitals, they don’t want to have the sight of a hospital or a doctor,” said her mother, Soliyah.

“Our only demand to higher authorities is to intervene in this matter and take strict action against the accused doctors and the hospital authorities,” said Zikra’s father.