Abrar Reyaz with severe head injury was shifted from SMHS to Chest Diseases hospital, which does not even have a trauma ward, because ‘no bed was available’ at the other Covid hospital

Srinagar: “What has a patient with head trauma injuries got to do at a chest diseases hospital?” questioned Sibtain Hyder, a youth from Srinagar as the news of the tragic death of Abrar Reyaz, a 24-year-old from Shopian district who was studying law in Srinagar, broke on social media Tuesday afternoon.
Abrar, who was pursuing LLB at Central University of Kashmir, met with an accident along with his father and uncle on the Srinagar-Jammu highway at Galandar on Saturday evening.
His uncle succumbed on the way to hospital while Abrar was shifted to SMHS Hospital in Srinagar with severe brain haemorrhage and immediately put on a ventilator.
He passed away on Tuesday afternoonat Chest Diseases Hospital Srinagar where he was shifted a day before, as the hospital authorities declared him a Covid-19 patient.
But Abrar’s close relatives have alleged that the test reports were swapped with another patient’s and Abrar had no Covid infection.
A close relative said that Abrar had been unnecessarily shifted to CD Hospital based on a dubious report, and no consideration was given to his serious head injury.
He said that Abrar had been showing “considerable improvement” at SMHS Hospital and should have been treated there instead of being shifted to CD Hospital, which is an exclusive facility for patients with respiratory ailments.
The CD Hospital, one of Abrar’s friends said, does not even have a specialist doctor to treat trauma patients.
Raja Ishfaq Lateef, one of Abrar’s friends, accused the hospital authorities at SMHS Hospital of “murder”.
“This is sheer negligence for which the doctors should be booked,” he said.
Principal of Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar, Dr Samia Rashid, reasoned that they “could not keep a Covid-19 positive patient with negative patients” at the hospital.
She said that Abrar’s Covid report came positive and they wanted to shift him to the Surgery Department at SKIMS Soura “but they did not have a bed”.
“Considering that he had tested Covid-19 positive, we shifted him to CD Hospital,” she said.
The GMC Principal also refuted allegations that Abrar’s Covid test report had been swapped or mixed with some other patient’s.

Irshad Khan