Lessons learned from Dr Furqan's death.

Byline: Peerzada Salman

KARACHI -- Mind-numbing details of how Dr Furqanul Haq, a former physician at the Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases, died after contracting the coronavirus because he could not find a bed with a ventilator in any of Karachi's hospitals and even a man who was in an ambulance that carried him was unwilling to touch him, have reinforced the fears that many of us did not have the courage to express earlier.

No need to apportion blame here. It will fetch us nothing. All we can do is learn from what we are not doing. It seems that while the lockdown was the right step to take to keep the curve of the virus in check, make no mistake, there were a great many things to be done alongside it. First of all, administrative steps should have been taken to come up with standard operating procedures (SOPs) for hospitals as well. There was always likelihood that the number of patients would increase exponentially, and if such a scenario reared its head, how medical facilities would be provided to them without being unfair to anyone needed to be worked out. One knows that it's easier said than done in a country like Pakistan, especially in a city like Karachi whose population is bursting at the seams. Still, that's what governments are put in power for.

It's a battle that no one knows how long we have to fight; so shortage of any relevant item will not yield favourable results

We have been constantly hearing that we need not fear the virus but fight it (darna nahin larna hai). If Dr Haq's case can be taken as an example, one can clearly see that there's an element of fright that exists in those whose job it is to make the patients feel comfortable. That's understandable. No one wants to catch the virus. But it's been more than two months since the first coronavirus case was reported in the country. The authorities should have been alerted enough to supply doctors, nurses and other hospital staff with...