🔶 Broken chain of treatment; blood share in Iran’s most deprived province

🔻A report by Atfeh Chaharomahyarian

On 26 Mordad 1405, Malika Hemtazadeh, a 13-year-old teenager from the village of Desk, after being bitten by a snake, was taken from the village to Hospital 22 Bahman in Nikshahr. However, along this route, the doctor, ambulance, platelets, and finally the ICU bed were not available. According to Malika’s father, the village health center was closed due to lack of a doctor, the town of Bent had no ambulance, and the platelets she needed were not provided either at Nikshahr Hospital or in Chabahar. Malika had a seizure at 10 p.m., and then died.

Saeed Baluchi, director of the Nikshahr Health and Treatment Network, has attributed the cause of death to “a delay of several hours in seeking care,” but at the same time confirmed that the pediatric specialist had diagnosed Malika’s urgent need for special care and that, due to the lack of an empty bed, she was not transferred to the ICU. Efforts to send her to a more equipped center also proved unsuccessful. This account offers no response to the family’s claim of hours-long waiting to obtain the platelets Malika required.