It took a suicide threat by a desperate patient for the authorities at Sher-I-Kashmir Institute of Medical sciences (SKIMS) to administer the required treatment. Firdous Ahmad,25,who was finally operated on on Thursday,recounted his experience of as many as four futile trips to the operation theatre for a valve replacement surgery,over the last 46 days. It is only a suicide threat which can get a poor man treated in this big hospital. No one cares about us otherwise, says Shabir Ahmad Bhat,neighbour and attendant of Ahmad. Ahmad,a salesman at a shop in Dafpora in Budgam district suffered from a cardiac problem and needed an open heart metal valve transfer. Director SKIMS,Abdul Hameed Zargar,claimed he was unaware of the incident. I came to know only today that there was such a case in my hospital and we took action, says Zargar but added that,If anything illegal is happening in the hospital,it is not my job to look at it by law.
