Ashiq Hussain
SRINAGAR, Oct 25: Two surgeons of North Kashmir’s remote sub-district hospital of Ganderbal, who despite saving life of a critical patient were wrongly damned by media in August, will be specially awarded by state government today.
The doctors, Sheikh Tariq (38) and Abdul Rouf (39), became the target of public ire after a local news agency wrongly reported a sensitive story , “Kashmir doctors remove gall-bladder instead of appendix” on August 16 mentioning the “negligence of the doctors”.
For its spicy content the story was immediately lifted by various national and international news portals besides appearing in local newspapers, perhaps without any official confirmation.
“Some irresponsible reporting had tarnished their reputation beyond public imagination. Although this won’t reverse the trauma which the two had to go through, but at-least we just want to acknowledge their effort for saving a life,” said Kashmir’s director health department, Shakeel-ur-Rehman.
A biopsy report of the surgery which was subsequently conducted on the 25-year-old female patient had established the correctness of the doctors, besides the patient’s family clearing the duo of any wrong doing.
“Had they referred the patient to some district or special hospital at that off hour, she would have died on way,” Rehman said.
Dr Sheikh Tariq, a super specialist in plastic surgery and his urologist colleague Dr Abdul Rouf, had operated on the woman on emergency basis after reporting acute abdominal pain on August 14. As time was running out, the duo after performing some tests had gone for laparotomy, a full sized abdominal incision which is a standard procedure in these conditions.
The doctors had found her “gall-bladder ruptured” which was “removed successfully” and patient had recovered without any complication.
“Unmindful of the world around us, we opted to serve our own people rather than fleeing to greener pastures. But the incident had shattered us to the core. The journalists, whose casually written news had virtually buried us into our homes, should introspect,” said a relieved Dr Tariq.
(Author is correspondent, Hindustan Times)
