• Mariyam Bashir Dawood Children’s Hospital designed to provide cardiac and urological cardiac services for free
• RS10BN installation will be used at the end of this year
Karachi: Assisted by their loved ones, more than 300 children wait for their hospital to develop at a fast pace in the area of the ancient city. Most of them seem visibly tired, sad and boring. But, as soon as the sound of music extends and resonates inside the hall, his eyes light up with surprise and emotion. They immediately turn their heads to the reception counter where they see a pianist, instead of a nurse, demonstrating their extraordinary skills.
“Children love music. I play national songs and poems for them to forget their diseases and difficulties, for a while,” says Zainab imran Dawn during a visit to the Mariyam Bashir Dawood Children’s Hospital, the creation of Dr. Adib Rizvi and his team at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (Siut).
Imran, a first leg Rieu College for the blind and deaf, has been associated with the Siut for more than 20 years, entertaining sick children, most of whom come from families fighting to survive and without access to essential services.
Today, all are part of the Siut family. Among them are: Mavia at five years, Fakhar Zaman, 12, Laiba, eight years old and Zohaib of two years.
“My grandson Mavia suffers from a kidney disorder. Now it is much better after receiving treatment in the Siut for two years,” says Mariam Bibi.
Despite her old age, Mariam Bibi travels alone every three months by train to take her grandson for a monitoring exam by the distant city of Rahim Yar Khan in Punjab to Karachi. His relationship with the Siut is quite old.
“More than two decades ago, I used to come here for my son’s treatment,” he recalls.
Like her, Zahoor, at 60, deals with the medical needs of her little grandson who needs dialysis twice a week. Now he is 12 years old.
“I had to leave my hometown Buner, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and reside in Karachi to guarantee the timely treatment of Fakhar. He has no one but me. His parents abandoned him after his separation,” he shares sadly.
Laiba and Zohaib, both from Karachi, have just begun their trip with the Siut, an important tertiary care institution known for providing quality medical care at no cost.
Children are diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome, a serious condition in which the kidneys release excessive amounts of protein in the urine, and the lack of proper treatment can cause complications that include renal damage. Symptoms such as swelling in various parts of the body and persistent weakness and disease forced their parents to seek medical treatment.
Specialized pediatric care
Located near the main building of the Siut in Chand Bibi Road, the 14 -story Children’s Hospital is designed to provide a complete continuum of attention to children looking for heart, urological and nephrology services.
Currently, the process is underway to install the last teams in the hospital, which will offer emergency services, clinical rooms, complete diagnoses, including laboratories/blood bank, magnetic resonance, CT, lithotripia, gamma camera, dialysis center, critical critical care care, five modular operations, two cardiovascular operation rooms, two catheterizations of catheterization ( Diagnosis with the diagnosis of the teams of the hearts from the heart to the heart to the heart to the heart to the heart of the heart.
To address the critical needs of the community, outpatient services for cardiac patients launched last year in November. The latest incorporation is the outpatient services of nephrology and urology inaugurated last month.
The RS10 billion project that is being built with philanthropic and governmental support is expected to become completely operational at the end of this year.
“The project means the continuous commitment of Siut to guarantee quality medical care as a fundamental right of each individual. Like the Siut, the patients here will be treated for the first time, for the first time, alone and will receive high quality free medical coverage,” says the senior pediatric urologist Dr. Sajid Sultan, who has been associated with the Siut since 1986.
By explaining the need for a specialized pediatric center, he said that while the children were being treated together with adults in the Siut, the team felt the need for a separate installation, considering the growing number of patients who had complications, the availability of limited treatment facilities in Pakistan and the growing reach of pediatric specialties.
“Every year, around 80,000 to 100,000 children are born in Pakistan with congenital anomalies, including those related to the heart, urinary tract and kidneys, which if left without surveillance can be potentially mortal or can lead to a disability.
“The prevalence of pediatric renal calculations, nephrotic syndrome and spinal defects is high in our country. Many children are presented with birth defects such as posterior urethral valves. If they do not obtain adequate management, 20 percent of these patients can experience renal failure.”
According to him, access and options for high quality specialized care for these diseases are limited in Pakistan.
In the private sector, treatment can cost them from RS500,000 and RS3 million, a significant financial burden for most families.
The Siut, says Dr. Sultan, has been functioning as a center of excellence for pediatric urology, nephrology and transplantation in the region for a long time; Hundreds of doctors trained in Siut are now serving in different hospitals throughout the country, while foreign professors are regularly invited to update and strengthen internal experience.
More than 100,000 pediatric urological surgeries, most of them have been carried out in the Siut in the last 20 years.
The Children’s Hospital, says Dr. Sultan, will not serve patients with common diseases such as diarrhea. “We wanted to avoid the replication of the facilities. The city already has hospitals that attend these diseases. Therefore, the affected patients will be referred to relevant health centers after receiving a support treatment in the emergency department here.”
Congenital heart defects
In the Siut, the pediatric cardiac unit was launched in 2022. In a short time less than four years, experts have performed more than 500 surgeries and 400 angioplasties. Preparations are being made to perform a percutaneous valve replacement procedure that will be carried out for the first time in Pakistan.
By explaining the urgent need to provide quality care in pediatric cardiology and cardiac surgery, Dr. Babar Hasan heading the relevant unit in the hospital, says that heart defects are the most common type of birth defects throughout the world.
“However, in the case of Pakistan, the vulnerability of congenital heart defects is much greater given our high mortality and birth rates, higher birth rates, a greater number of moving mothers and a higher prevalence of cousin marriages (among other factors).
“Four countries, India, Pakistan, China and Indonesia, represent at least half of the global children’s population with congenital heart defects,” said Dr. Babar Hasan that heads the pediatric unit, explaining why the specialty was chosen to provide treatment.
Research, he says, have also linked greater vulnerability with congenital cardiac defects/s to increase temperature.
OPD of nephrology
Around 300 to 400 patients arrive at the OPD services of recently launched nephrology organized once a week at the Siut Children’s Hospital.
“Only 18 percent of the patients are from Karachi, while 62PC are from the interior parts of Sindh. We also receive patients from Baluchistan and Punjab,” shares Dr. Ali Asghar Lanewala that leads the pediatric nephrology unit.
The Siut, says Dr. Lanewala, obtains his strength from the poor, the most disadvantaged segments of society and donors, many of them want to remain in anonymity.
“While we want to spread our wings and provide the best facilities to more patients, we want to grow as a family, maintain the relationship once built and maintain our tradition of providing vivid free medical attention with dignity.”
According to officials, the hospital is expected to serve 16,000 patients hospitalized per year, while 500 patients are expected to inform clinics per day.
The 20 -bed emergency center will provide safe, effective and immediate attention. The dialysis center will add capacity for 100,000 sessions per year using the modern equipment to improve the results of the patients.
Posted in Dawn, April 13, 2025
