Talking in video, dead hours later!

Srinagar, Nov 19: Shockwaves rippled across Kashmir after videos surfaced showing a young Srinagar woman, Sobiya Jan, fully conscious, oriented, and calmly speaking with hospital staff, just two hours before she passed away. Doctors said her death was caused by massive internal bleeding in her brain and abdomen following a road traffic accident in Chadoora.

Doctors at SDH Chadoora said the woman was brought to the hospital in an unconscious state at around 8 30, and low blood pressure and a faint pulse. “We gave her IV fluid and she regained consciousness,” the doctor who had first responded to the emergency said. He said the patient had multiple fractures in arm. “However, she had head injury, marks of tyres on her abdomen and it was a clear and serious case of poly-trauma,” he said. The doctor said the patient was “stabalised” and referred to Bone and Joint Hospital, “the nearest Trauma Hospital”. The doctor said the patient had active external bleeding, which was stopped. “She was brought to hospital within 10 minutes of injury. Her blood-pressure continued to be low when we referred her around 9 pm, the doctor said.

While it has been widely reported that the patient died at Bone and Joint Hospital in Srinagar, the hospital records state otherwise. The patient was brought dead to the hospital. She was taken to Operation Theatre for resuscitation, all attempts of which failed. She was declared dead at 10:10 am, barely two hours after her accident and less than two hours after the viral video.

According to the family, Jan was the sole bread earner for them. She had left home to visit a faith-healer in Chadoora, in hope of finding a miracle to cure her brother who is unwell. “She had left home around 7 am to visit a Peer for her brother. He has not been well and treatments have not helped him much,” a relative of her, identifying as her maternal uncle said. Her mother and father are both ailing, and in need of support, financial and physical to move around. “We always thought Asiya (as she was popularly called by family members) is enough to support three family members who are solely dependent on her,” her cousin said.

The family of Jan had more to grieve now, apart from her death – her parents and her brother, for whom she earned livelihood, and supported as a daughter, and sister.

Police has registered a case, however, the family has demanded that the guilty be held accountable and adequate compensation be provided to the family that has been left without any source of support and income.