Rawalpindi - A nurse was found dead yesterday inside her room at the nursing hostel of Benazir Bhutto Hospital.
Local police confirmed that security personnel found the dead body of the nurse inside the hostel which was shifted to District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital to complete legal procedure to get reasons behind the death. The deceased was identified as Andaleeb and she was a fourth-year student at the same hospital. She hailed from Pind Jhatala area of Gujar Khan.
Initial investigation report stated that no evidence was emerged to declare the incident as murder, as the lady was suffering from mental stress.
However, sources told The Nation that the nurse allegedly died of heart attack after being snubbed by her principal for carrying mobile phone to the ward during duty hours. “After punishment of the principal, the nurse went into deep mental stress that caused heart attack and she died. A roommate of the deceased spotted her lying on her bed dead with left side of body from ear to foot was blue,” sources said.
On the other hand, the hospital administration has been trying to hush up the issue and is busy portraying the incident as a suicide. According to sources, Andaleeb joined her night duty (from 08:00pm to 08:00am) at urology ward on Sunday night when other staffers detected her while using mobile phone during duty hours. According to rules, the administration has banned nurses from using/carrying cell phones during duty hours. The nursing staff reported the matter to assistant superintendent nursing staff, who brought the matter into teh notice of Nursing School Principal Tasleem Akhtar, they said. The mobile phone of Andaleeb was confiscated by the assistant superintendent nursing staff, they added.
In the morning, the principal while taking action called Andaleeb into her office and snubbed her seriously, sources said adding that the principal kept Andaleeb standing for almost two hours (from 08:00am to 10:00am) in her office.
“Some friends and a roommate of Andaleeb were sitting in the lawn of hostel and listening to music when they saw Andaleeb going towards her room with stress and pain on her face,” they said adding that after a few minutes the roommate went to her room where she saw Andaleeb dead.
The roommate immediately called other nurses who took body of Andaleeb into arms and started running towards hospital emergency. “There was no stretcher or wheelchair available in the hostel to meet any emergency,” sources said.
They revealed that the rescuing nurses could not maintain their balance and the dead body of Andaleeb fell on the ground. Then, some male nursing staff moved Andaleeb to emergency department where doctors pronounced her dead. “The doctors tranquilised the stomach of Andaleeb but found no sign of poisoning or any intoxicated secretion in emergency ward,” a doctor told The Nation on request of anonymity.
Later, a team also visited the room of the victim nurse in hostel and conducted a detailed search but it found no suspicious thing there, sources said.
The hospital administration told media persons that it might be possible that Andaleeb committed suicide.
BBH Nursing Hostel Principal Tasleem Akhtar, when contacted by this correspondent, admitted that she summoned the nurse upon complaint. She said that she took departmental action against the nurse and also informed the MS as well as parents of the nurse. “Neither had I kept her standing for two hours nor had I snubbed her,” Tasleem Akhtar said. On a query, she replied it might be possible that Andaleeb died of heart attack but it would be premature to say anything as final autopsy report would ascertain the cause of death.
Medical Superintendent BBH Dr Asif Qadir Mir neither attended his cell phone nor replied to the text message sent by this correspondent on his cell phone for getting his version over the death of the nurse. Station House Officer (SHO) Abid Khan while chatting with The Nation said that police are waiting for issuance of medical report by the doctors. Meanwhile, the family members of nurse also reached the hospital.
A brother of Andaleeb told media persons that her sister was completely fine and happy when she made telephonic conversation with him last night. He rebuffed the allegations that her sister had committed suicide.