By Bismha Nayyer
on a cold night of November 4th, 2016, a 16 years old young boy was walking on one of the deserted roads of Islamabad. There were several things on his mind which compelled him to take a stroll at this time of the night instead of seeking comfort in his hard bed.
While he was planning to look for a job first thing in the morning, a speeding car with full beam light hit him hard, fracturing his left leg and bruising is face and arms.
Like most hit & run cases, the driver fled the scene. He was found lying helplessly on the road by a bystander and was brought to the hospital. Upon regaining some consciousness what he saw was white bright light and chaos. Unable to make a sense of his surroundings, he asked a nurse where was he? Nurse asked him his name and told him that he was in the emergency ward of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), a public-sector tertiary care hospital in Islamabad. He identified himself as Roze Khan. Khan was called by his elder brother Ajab khan from the far flung underprivileged, inaccessible mountainous area of District Zob Baluchistan to be with him in the capital city, hoping for having better earning opportunities.
Roze was sharing a three-bedroom shabby ancestral home with his family of 10 including himself, his two elderly parents, three brothers, one sister-in-law and three nephews between 5-16 of ages. His elder brother, earning Rs 500 per day, was the only financial supporter of his family.
From emergency to the orthopedic ward, Rs. 10,000 which his brother borrowed, was spent on Roze khan medicines and diagnostics. Not able to afford the cost of operation, Roze khan let the doctors in about their financial crises. Bearing in mind his broken leg and empty pocket, the orthopedic surgeon Dr. Saeed Ullah Merzi contacted Heartfile Health Financing (HHF) on 10th Nov 2016 requesting for Interlocking nailing for left leg costing Rs. 22,821. On the same day of request initiation, he was assessed by HHF verifier for the poverty scale and has been granted approval for the surgical procedure.
Being bed ridden for almost 3 months, his almost healed leg still hurts but he must work like his elder brother to support his family.
According to WHO’s World Health Statistics released on May 17th, 2017 about 13% of the total population worldwide dies annually from road traffic injuries/accidents because of late medical interventions and also is the main cause of death for people aged 15-29 years.
Saving Roze khan may seems a contribution in a fraction of tenth of thousands but your generous donations made it possible for HHF for making that valuable contribution no matter how small it may seem!