Hope in Lal Ded Hospital

A winter of fear, faith and fierce medical care inside Lal Ded Hospital showed me what public healthcare, and human kindness, really mean.

- Dr Nisar Farhad

On 18 January 2026, I took my wife Yasmeena for what we believed would be a routine antenatal checkup.

She was eight months pregnant, glowing with the calm confidence that comes when months pass without alarm.

We met Dr Liza, a senior gynaecologist at the Government District Hospital in Pulwama, and expected the usual reassurances before heading home to our two children.

Instead, the blood pressure machine told a different story.

The reading stood at 210 over 160. 1 watched the numbers settle on the screen and felt the ground shift beneath me.

Dr Liza did not waste a single minute. She looked at us with clarity and said we had to move to Lal Ded Hospital in Srinagar immediately.

Until that moment, I had placed deep trust in months of private consultations.

We had attended every appointment, followed every suggestion, and drawn comfort from kind words that promised a smooth delivery.

But on that winter afternoon, | understood how quickly certainty can dissolve.

When crisis strikes, it is the public hospital that becomes the final refuge for families like mine.

We reached Lal Ded Hospital around 6.30 in the evening. Yasmeena went straight to the labour ward, where doctors began high doses of magnesium sulphate and other medicines to control her blood pressure.

The staff ordered a long list of investigations, including ultrasound, ECG, blood panels and urine tests.

I waited for each report with a tight chest, and when the results came back within normal limits, I felt a wave of gratitude.

Each test and every medicine came without cost, and that fact alone changed the way I saw our public health system.

After several hours of monitoring, her blood pressure stabilised.