Dr. Essa Laboratory Episode
I & many of my friends just got this email recently. Please comment if you have any such idea or if you know about this issue, specially those who know any character in the story personally. The email sender S. Farhan Ahmed says it has come to public knowledge that Dr.Essa Laboratories, North Nazimabad, Karachi is indulged in criminal activities of Sample Pooling thus playing with the lives of hundreds of people who come to the laboratory for a blood test. The email is in detail & to prove the point it mentions the contact info even.
We would like to request any official from Dr. Essa Laboratory to verify or deny such incident in public interest. It’s the matter of great concern for general public. Please do so specially if someone is trying to defame you. Here is the email.
My brother Mr.Syed Irfan Ahmed who has recently joined a multinational company was asked to do a blood test. The company before employing any individual conducts a body screening test so they referred Dr. Essa Lab, North Nazimabad Karachi as one of their panel laboratory & close to the residence as well. These blood test reports were dated 31.03.2006 & 04.04.2006 respectively created against the blood sample of my brother Mr.Syed Irfan Ahmed who has recently joined a multinational company.
I collected the report from Dr. Essa Lab, North Nazimabad, on 31.03.2006; I was shocked to see the Dr.Essa findings and diagnosis of 24yrs old individual as Hepatitis C Virus with remarks of HCV antibodies reactive. After getting the report I contacted to Dr.Farhan Essa and asked him to review the report as its a life & career matter but they said it is checked & verified by Dr.Essa personally & he further emphasized that this report is final and cannot be checked again instead & they are confident about their result (false claim)
DR. ESSA Lab conduct Test on ELISA Standards AKUH conduct test on MEIA Standards I went to Aga Khan University Hospital in order to re-examine the blood sample and Alhamdullillah AKUH report was good & reflected Hepatitis C Virus NON-Reactive to further confirm the AKUH test another advance test of PCR (Paramarase Chain Reaction) was also conducted on an emergency basis which is most costly blood test in order to further confirm the Negativity of HEPATITIS C VIRUS and the report also appeared NEGATIVE (Alhamdullillah) I had to spend the whole night in the Aga University Hospital just to figure out how far their report is true.. what are their parameters, what are their reference, who is going to endorse the report, who is the pathologist/consultant, I also met 2 more poor patients at AKUH laboratory that diagnosed by Dr.Essa as HEPATITIS C VIRUS… after such findings and denial of HEPTATIS C VIRUS by Aga University Hospital I started consulting with Different Individuals as referred under:
1. Gastroenterologist & Hepatologist, AKUH
2. Gastroenterologist & Hepatologist, OMI & Ziauddin
3. Pathologist, LNH
4. Pathologist, POF Hospital Wah Cantt
5. Microbiologist, Abbott Laboratories
6. Pharmacist, ICI Pakistan Limited
7. General Physicians, Samdani Hospital
8. Clinical Specialist, AKUH
After thoroughly reviewing & gathering all possible information & opinion it has come to my knowledge that they are engaged in the Criminal Activities of Sample Pooling (in this system they mix 4 blood sample of 4 different individuals and conduct a test just to save a cost of the kit in conducting 4 individual test). The reliability is ZERO in SAMPLE POOLING and if any one among them is infected with a virus certainly all three will be reported with the same virus & what they hag done to my brother as well. Met with Dr. Farhan Essa at Dr.Essa LABORATORIES, North Nazimabad, and Karachi and give them a very tough time with FIA inspector.
Dr. Farhan Essa personally called & accepted their mistake & would like to only compensate the expenses that have incurred in the repeat test at AKUH. He further offered that if any blood test related to my brother will be free… This acceptance shows that they are engaged in malpractices & playing with the life of the people.
This misreporting has taken me & my family in agony & pain that cannot be stated in words. The fear of loosing our brother in next 5 years was such a pain. Hepatitis C Virus is controlled not cured & take a shape of LIVER CANCER in 5-10years. (God forbid)
I would like to request all persons who are reading this please do communicate to the people around you. This little information can save many people from AGONY & PAIN
Your wellwisher
A sufferer,
S. Farhan Ahmed
0300-8260301
syed_farhan_ahmed@yahoo.com
I’d definately put a lawsuit in and get them shut down. How could you get away with something like this? Oh well everything is possible in Pakistan.
This is absolutely ridiculous. This should be published in some newspaper.
Well, why do we always say that everything is possible in pakistan? why do WE not follow the rules?
We need to correct ourselves before pointing out at someone else. You can see violation of traffic rules everywhere. Motorbike riders driving on the footpaths. A car tries to turn right from extreme left lane. We need to correct basics first I guess.
You should contact GEO and other media who are always hungry for the mirch masala and get this doctor death noticed in pakistani society.
Dr. Essa ki pehn dee… :-)
I hope he wasn’t recomending “SAFI” for Hepatitis. Khoon saaf and chehra sahadaab ;-)
Holy Crap – thats unbelivable. I agree with Kaash that there should be a lawsuit. What ever body issues licenses to these guy should suspend the license till the lab cant rectify its processes.
Yes TAlk to GEO NEtwork, its a good idea, they alwyz lookin for something, atleast People will KNOW what was goin on in that LAB!!!:D
Here is the place to go for :
http://www.geo.tv/geop/tell_geo.asp
Please provide your original info & avoid fake information as it will make the network believe that the information is authentic. The GEO network would try to check the authenticity of the person who send the comment.
i bet nothing gonna happen to there laboratories… and they will continue to there “bussiness”….
a couple of weeks back,i did forward this mail to people including Huma,awab.I am surprised that awab didnt bring it up,maybe its just a rumour about Essa lab.
Regarding geo,yes they are always ready to make news,for instance fardeen khan is in pakistan so its a big news in jang paper :D (copies sarah).
on Yeah MegaBytes(MB),thanks for making it as Post.:>
The GEO network would try to check the authenticity of the person who send the comment.
haaha,GEO and authenticity?its joke of the day :>
Defiantly a lawsuit should be filed against these people, and you should contact the local newspapers. It is important that we start taking these things seriously, Agha Khan is not the only Hospital people go to, Our 90% of populations go to places like Essa because they don’t cost much, and most of these people cant even raise their voice against suck criminal acts. There is a need to take these matters seriously I am forwarding this blog Via Email to all the people I know, and I hope the rest of us should at do the same. Thank you MB for making this letter available to us .
:D (copies sarah).
!!!:D
This is absolutely ridiculous.
can save many people from AGONY & PAIN
How could you get away with something like this?
EXCuse ME!! BUT THATs MY TradeMARK :D :D no copy !!!!:D
I know peronally Mr.S. Farhan Ahmed, He is FRAUDY
person, He is infected HCV, but AKUH result is another person.
He is FRAUDY & Blackmailer person.
Both doctor belongs to ESSA lab?well he could be a fraudia but not AKU reports?Not difficult to find out:)
sarah its trademark like “Billi marka metromillan agar batti”? :>
I speculate both Drs. posting comments within a span of 5 minutes are a same person.
Has any1 tried to call at the number given in the email?
Everyone, note this:
Dr.K.Zafar Hashmi : 202.x.x.90
Dr.Khursheed : 202.x.x.90
Both came within 5 minutes & note this closely in both comments:
“He is FRAUDY”
I hope you got it all?
So Dr.K.Zafar Hashmi & Dr.Khursheed or Mr. Fake, Would you like to explain such a Coincidence? We can understand the fact that they both were on the same computer (lolzz, LNH & AKU , on same PC ) but how come the style became same?
Moreover read this from there comments “but AKUH result is another person ” . This proves one thing. There is something real in the background & Dr. K Zafar does know about this story so why does not he come and explain his part of the story to that entire how Mr. Farhan tried to do the fraud, if he did. & explain the coincidence as well.
Ooh please someone call him and verify the story!
MB have you verified any of this before posting ?
:D ( copies Sarah ) !! And then Trademark!! “Sarah marka comments at Metblog”
:D!!! Cant Sarah, just be a nick ?
This has made Mr. Farhan case more strong as people started playing falsely against him.
@Jay
Did you read the first para of this Post?
Quote from it “Please comment if you have any such idea or if you know about this issue.”
I have also received this email through a chain of emails. I don’t know if anybody has called the guy, who has written this letter, and tried to verify its authenticity.
My advice to KMB posters is to verify such reports prior to publishing them online. Why provide the forum for urban legends and hoaxes?
Wow! this story has started to sizzle!!
I felt that the number or E-mail address should have been verified at least.
Any ways, now that the Imposter Doctors have posted these comment this story has become even more strong and true.
WTF , I was the guy who wrote this email , Dr Essa refused to marry her daughter with me. This is Sith’s Revenge.
I agree with Aziz that atleast we should not post such emails w/o verifying. How if this email was bundle of lies.
It sounds that all regular posters/commenters have gone after MB has taken over this blog. I miss Poo Poo , Anon , Darth Vader , Ramla :-(
Well GuyS, if u speculate so much about this Post, why dont you try to call at the number provided in the Post. dhoodh ka dhoodh…pani ka pani
Stop sounding like empty drums!!!
Dear Brothers,
Without any proof or Medical Board we cant suggest the ………?
POOL sample results were FALSE NEGATIVE and person claim REACTIVE, I prove above person misguide Peoples and HAND MAKING STORY.
GOD KNOWS BETTER,
Alright everyone. Much hype was created about talking to Mr. Farhan. It’s a shame that none of you who posted so many messages bothered trying to call him. Now please don’t come to me saying it’s not your job etc. Well we are for two days now to contact MR FARHAN. He did reply to one SMS (in which we inquired about this metblog post and if he wants to edit something to this email or omit) to my friend (which we used to communicate) asking us to remove his emails completely which we will not do obviously until we find some truth. Second we were told (The person who picked the call didn’t mention his name) that he has gone to ISLAMABAD for one week. I will request you all to try to call him as well as he might have been in Karachi as he did reply to one of the SMS messages sent to him. Had he been in Islamabad, either his mobile would be with him there and he would tell us so or he would have turned it off.
Now do you smell something here?
First my skepticism … (to be followed by less of it and more of benefit of doubt)
1. The charge in the email seems too outrageous. A lab mixing blood of 4 persons before conducting the test ? This cannot be bad business ethics – it can only be sheer stupidity.
2. I bet Hepatitis C tests do not form their major chunk of revenue. It is senseless to cut corners in this test. Wont save or make a lot of money for them. Now … if they do it with every blood test (not to speak of urine, stool, samples ?), then the lab would have been shut … no … flattened to the ground a long time ago.
3. The people posing as doctors here also seem to have an agenda.
4. The owner of the lab is probably not answering the phone NOT because he might have done something wrong, BUT simply because so many people reading chain emails might be calling him.
5. If the affected gentleman is so savvy to write such accurately described email and asks people to do something about it, WHY CANT THE SAME PERSON come forward and contact Geo, ARY, Aaj ?
6. The lab guys may be inefficient, but not stupid.
7. This mail could have been either sent by a disgruntled employee or dissatisfied customer.
FINALLY, LESS SKEPTICISM … MORE of BENEFIT of DOUBT …
1. If the affected person is real, let him come forward to see any of the bloggers here and we can jointly help and move forward. I don’t exactly know what we can do at this point, but we can think of something.
*(With apologies … Can’t keep my skepticism out of this too … I’ll be very surprised if it does happen. The gentleman will not come forward)*
2. So many specialists from so many hospitals are referred to in the email. MB, were there names there in the original mail ? If yes, please get in touch with one of the consultants please. If you can trust any other bloggers here, one of us can help. If all of this is true, it must be hot news in medical circles.
Disclosure: I am not related to anyone in Essa lab. I am just sick of chain letters and emails.
@ Redsnapper: I absolutely agree with you. Sensing some fishy work behind I decided to keep KMB neutral. Everything that you wrote is absolutely right.
As for your comment “. The owner of the lab is probably not answering the phone NOT because” . I was talking about the person who send the email and not the Dr. Essa Laboratory. I will try to have their view after checking this side of the story first as they are the accusers.
One important thing; I came across few people who do have a fair knowledge about this person Dr. Essa. One of a known person told me he knows him personally. It’s very unfortunate that people only talk and when It comes to action they don’t cooperate. The person in the email has not only provided names but mentioned his contact. No one is a fool to do that if he is making it up all. There is something fishy. Either it’s a case of an individual handled inappropriately or similar one that’s why the person decided to lash out against him all over. I think you pointed out things quite well in your email.
This is just a chain mail! and MB you should had verified it before posting! by posting this, you have made the creator of this email happy! he is in news now! by the way Hepatitis C is not that dangerous that the person claiming in his email, its just technical name for jaundice and the posbility a person die due to this is 1%-5%.
HEP C not dangerous???
Beta u better get ur facts rite. Hep C causes CHRONIC hepatitis. Your liver shrinks and gets cirrhosed. A liver of HepC patient looks like a liver of a chronic alcoholic.
AND hepC is known to lead to liver cancer.
Not dangerous my ass.
@FAKHR
I think you need to read the para before the emails starts. And for your kind information (again it shows you didn’t read the posts carefully ) the person is absolutely not happy to be in news and has asked MB through SMS to remove the email.
In which world you are living man! The ratio of HepC survivors are only 2 -3% whereas for HepB its 10%
Ok will this blog turned out to be real controversy, people including me have pointed figures at others and seriously we have done nothing other then speculating. BTW the skepticism by redsnapper is more of an analysis and a very correct one, As far as the S.Farhan Ahmed is Concerned, I did tried to call him, but got no answer then I wrote him this e-mail and Message to his yahoo Id requesting him to submit Scanned copies of the related documents/reports but there has been no reply as yet.
Is he shying away from publicity (or notoriety) or what? If that be the case then why he himself, with all his contact info open to all send the email to every one all over the Karachi and didn’t mind it being forwarded. What is he trying to do?
Interestingly enough the two doctors from AKU & LNH didn’t appear after those two comments. Where they are gone as well? Is there any background “muk muka” going on between the two parties? Have both done something which is forcing them not to say something so that the real Pandora box remain closed so as to save their skins.
I have come to know a person who knows something about this issue and knows Dr Essa personally. I am trying my best to get something out of him. Let’s see where we end up.
MB , you are a joke. You have not talked with any party and you are saying about “muk muka”. The stupid people like you should be banned from posting any thing. Come on dude , first of all you should not have posted such controversial thing with out verifying and now you are just speculating about all stupid things. If I were a dr. or even patient in this case, I would not have replied any phone call nor sms. Why would I reply some anonymous phone calls Miss BIG JAY. Get a life you all losers.
Now about sampling. Just think logically is that so bad thing ? Why dont every one go to AKU in first place ? Because they charge hell of money for these blood tests and not every one could afford them. These small labs keep their expenses low by doing sampling. Lets assume that if 10 people has some for HIV or any thing then you know that probability is less than 5% that person would be infected then generally labs do sampling. if combination of 10 samples is fine then you are confident that all are fine and you could save money of nine kits but if any one is bad then you could apply binary search and could find bad one in lg(n) times. This way you could keep your costs low. I am not defending lab but this is the way these labs work all around the world. There might have been carelessness on behalf of lab staff and lets pray that Allah saves us form all health hazards.
Guys,
My cousin works at that lab and this story checks out. He told me that it did happen but not in his department. I will share more when i get more info.
Dear Mr. Half Mind, oops I mean Half Life. Please save your half energy by first reading the starting part of this Topic so you dont have to think hard. I cannot keep on telling individually now. As for verification. Again please, bother a little to read the posts. FAISAL SIDDIQUI, if he is right has answered to your point as well. As for your point “Why would I reply some anonymous phone calls Miss BIG JAY “. Then why he bothered to pump the email to all the people around with his email & provided his contact info to every one, so as to show that it’s a true. Was that to find out the rates of “aaloo” & “Tamatar”
As for example that you mentioned. I should appreciate for your effort but please first learn how to explain. I have nothing to do with medical science & please do correct me if there is anything wrong in this but let me tell others what you wanted to explain. If a batch of 10 samples produces a negative result, then the cost of nine tests has been saved. If the test is positive, samples can be subdivided and retested. My dear angry brother In this case the test “was positive”. I hope you will, again I have say it forcefully, read posts carefully before jumping onto things.
This pooling also has two major factors. One, the nature of the laboratory process used to detect dangerous diseases significantly complicates group testing. And you know very much how well labs (in general) we have in our country. Two, the pooling process is a dilution effect that sometime obscures the presence of the small microscopic organisms thus dangerous if the test if for a serious disease.
It’s clear that how dangerous results, if not handled properly the process of sample pooling can produce.
And yes there will be speculations, like the ones that are going on if people first send emails to all and then do not bother to verify of deny such things. Other few are coming up and informing that such thing did happen. FAISAL SIDDIQUI, please see what info you can get from that person.
@Half Life
Find a bad sample using binary search???? Excuse Me! What the hell are you talking about? We are particular talking in context of this issue dear. Please mind reading something that has been posted earlier. Mr. Farhan got his reports positive which clearly states that Dr. Essa peoples are preparing the report solely on the combined group test.
I don’t know HALF LIFE, but i guess you either live in fool’s paradise or a deaf drum. People like you are half fool by birth and half by will. Don’t know what made you say those things but you need to get your half remaining mind right.
@MB
Will look forward to reading result of your effort to get to the bottom of this.
Secondly, if there is (at all) such a thing as sampling, lets everyone work together to bring it out in the open.
Speculation, quibbling and MB-bashing. There can be something better to do here than this.
MB and Abdul Sami,
I could not understand that why we cant do sampling, every one does that, might be I was not able to explain clearly. Might be I am not good in simplifying things.
Any one who knows binary search would agree with me and I guess MB does not know that and AS does not understand that.
And MB , please check your comments, I could come very hard on you but I am letting it go. You were the one who started this thread and made speculation of ‘muk muka’. Who the hell are you to judge people.
MB you have very low IQ , I am sure. You wrote
“If a batch of 10 samples produces a negative result, then the cost of nine tests has been saved. If the test is positive, samples can be subdivided and retested” .
I said completely opposite of this. Could you or AS explain me that why binary search wont work.
@HalfLife : I guess you have a serious problem of either not reading or not understanding others comments.
Where the hell i have said Binary search wont work. I said we are discussing Mr. Farhans Case who claims that as a result of sample pooling he has got a positive result which states that Binary search is not being used @ Dr. Essa lab
Well, there are a few things here which need to be mentioned. First I am not siding with the Essa lab. Second i do not completely believe what the story says. Why?. Because me being a doctor know that pooling of samples does happen, but if the result of the pooled blood turns out to be positive each blood sample is checked separately and as for the test all the screening test here in Pakistan and also world wide is cheaper than the much expensive tests like PCR and they are also available at labs other than AKU. Its user dependent If I’ll go asking for a HEP C PCR I will get the result nad and if I’ll go for HEP C on Elisa I’ll get the result on Elisa. Of course the cheaper tests don’t have the same amount of sensitivity as that of a PCR but the method is the doctors usually go for a screening test and if it’s positive they go on for the expensive one. You can’t send the whole nation spending a fortune on these screening tests. The best example I can give is that of a person going for a chest X-ray, which is cheap. If only an abnormality comes in we go for a CT scan. There is also a possibility of an Australian Antigen being present in the blood which gives a positive result on Elisa which if confirmed on PCR is negative for HEP C. Australian antigen being positive doesn’t mean a person is infected with HEP C.
@qu3st
Thanks, this was interesting. Adds to my knowledge. I know someone who had Hepatitis C positive result (marginally) once and then a few months later showed it negative.
I didn’t know about PCR. Nor was that person advised by her doctor to get a PCR. She still lives in half-doubt because of that test.
Do most labs in Karachi carry PCR ?
@Ms. qu3st :
Thanks dear for that info. It was a very simple way to explain things. It indeed adds to our knowledge. We hope to see you around here to guide us.
@Mr. Redsnapper :Did that woman try doing some more tests? I guess PCR might help her.
@Mr. HALF LIFE :
Mr. Sami is right. Dude I guess you have really some serious issues (read problems) in comprehending. We can only sympathize with you. I have no clue what you do when you read posts but let me humbly tell you once again that (1) I never objected/denied sample pooling method & in fact I gave the example in its favor & (2) my example was not a “ghar ka tookta”. It was from a research article from a Stanford College article. And I guess it’s simple and quite easy to understand the fact that sample pooling helps save money. If the pool sample is negative then good else do more tests until we get a negative again. The worst case scenario would be to have all the tests till the last sample which is rare. I don’t know what in the world is so difficult to understand in this.
Anyways, best of luck. And yes let me give you all an update. Right now we are working on Dr. Essa Side of the story. Let’s see if they are ready to share something.
I request you to please at least add something constructive into discussion if you cannot do something productive.
@Mr. Sami:
Bhai aap bachay ko maaf bhi kerdo yaar. Ab kia jaan lainge us ki aap. Lolz.
@MB its ms.qu3st.
@redsnapper Yes many labs do conduct PCR but its better to send it to AKU or a good lab. When you are spending your money why not spend it on a reliable lab.
@Ms. qu3st : Accept my apology. A Correction has been made now. One more thing: I have edited your post to look it more formal as short cuts like “ys” & “….” are usually avoided here.
@ Half Life – You rang sir?
@MB : This is totally hilarious- you correcting someone’s post:) LOLLLLLL.
Anyway, please don’t post urban legends and chain mails here, certainly it behooves KMB to verify and check their sources and stories before posting.And how come you always end up in shouting matches with the people posting comments here?
Anon: Guess who has come to dinner
it is not acceptable,i think its a crime and should be dealt seriously.
I have been using Dr Essa’s Lab since the late 80s and have recommended my friends and family to the lab. I have personally met Dr Essa and he has been one of my role models with exceptional work ethics. From the email which has been forwarded by the brother of questionable result it seems just by reading that this person either has some personal issues with the lab or is from another competitive lab trying its best to defame it. I had also received email of the reply which was sent by officials from Dr Essas lab which told their perspective of the events. Apparently Dr Essa’s Lab Personels had offered to repeat the test free of charge in their lab and also to the pts sample to AKU but the affected party refused this for some reason even though Dr Essa’s Lab personal explained that this is the best for the pt as they had the first sample stored in the lab and had run the test about three times to reconfirm and it still showed positive.
From what it seems to be deduced by this is that another person who actually was Hep C positive had given blood to Dr Essas Lab and it showed positive result and Dr Essa’s Lab per protocol had kept the blood in its storage and had repeated it three times but the result was still the same. Apparently either AKU made a mistake or another person went to AKU and used the same name and got a negative result. And with that has been using this to defame the lab. I suggest to Dr Essa’s lab that this is a criminal act to defame an enterprise without proof and they can bring a law suit on these people and the court will bring out that same person and have him tested.
To all the people who have been posting their comments and which has been a problem in our community. You have to have an open mind and see problems from both sides before commenting or judging one side.
I believe Mr. Sami Ahmad is right, my own personal experience in using Essa Lab has been quite satisfactory and as they have become a reputable lab is the reason behind some malicious competitor spreading rumours about them. What also is worrying that spammers usually collect working emails by sending similar email and later we find our inbox full of junk mail.
Oh dear. The infamous chain mail. Now I’ve been in the mainstream media for some time, and there is something that I can say about handling such e-mails.
This is the rule of thumb: you never never never publish anything forwarded by an e-mail unless it came straight from the source, and the source is known to you. And THEN you verify it from all parties cited. No matter how “important” the news is. When it’s a libel case (defamation), it’s your honor as well as the affected person’s honor on line, and this is a line that is never crossed without verification, re-verification, and the exercise of the good sense.
There is no “for your info only” in such cases. The golden rule is, would you like a false piece of info about you circulated just for info, and be asked to verify or deny it? No? then use the same logic when passing on edfamatory info about others.
All societies have one rule for rumor: pass it on only to the relevant authorities, and never to the public. It always causes harm. Remember the Hot ‘n’ Spicy virus rumor? That put their business down for days.
Even if this information is true, this is not the way for the affected to deal with it. He should have written to the concerned authorities, the judicial authorities, and as the last resort: press. The press has the means to verify the news, and they will not let a juicy opportunity pass.
Besides there is always the good sense test: there are many people who will be phobic of tests after these rumors, from Essa or anywhere. Panic of this sort just must not be spread. I only appreciate Dr. Awab and Huma’s discretion in this regard.
For the interest of the affected (Essa? The claimer?), and to avoid any legal notice this post should remove the e-mail IMMEDIATELY and post an explanatory note instead.
For your info, I was served a legal notice for using the words “Got Brains?” in one of the posts on KMB – the words turned out to be the trademark slogan of a company. I changed the words (after protesting with the company).
P.S. As for the “doctors” who commented. Please! It could be any impersonator teen having a laugh. You just CANNOT use a public forum for making serious allegations! Karachi Metblog must not feature such things at all. Leave it to the real journalists.
Dear Mr. Farhan,
Your widely forwarded email eventually reached my inbox too. I must say that i agree with a couple of things you mentioned and also disagree with you on some aspects.
Like you i have had experiences as that in many places……….( organizations which i am too polite to mention!)
I had an experience with Essa Lab and Dr. Essa personally. My father was very very sick with pnuemonia and he was resistant to all bacterias according to the report at Agha khan and also many other labs i had it tested in . When a uncle of mine said that maybe you should go to Essa lab as Dr. Essa is a pioneer in this field. I thought i should do what i could for the life and good health of my father. Doctors had given up , but how could i, for i am a son. At 11 pm at night on 16 Feb 2002…. i went to Essa Lab and found Dr Essa sitting under a bright lamp, making reports. I told him of the situation and he agreed to help me and right awat he sent technicians to collect my fathers sample , and at 3 pm in the night Dr Essa came to my home and delivered the result by hand . We started his recommended therapy immediately and by the grace of Allah in 10 days my father who could not even lift his head from the pillow was walking around.
For me Essa lab has saved not only my fathers life and whoever i have come across helped them in anyway they could. Dr. Essa was never known to me before this incident but even then he agreed to help me . How many people you know would come to your home and deliver a report at home and save a persons life.
So brother farhan , i have couple of things i want to ask you and all of you who have been forwarding this email…..for people with logic and intact brains should think about what they do before they do it
How come its not your brother who is writing this email, after all he should be more annoyed then you, it is his life after all!!!
You did write that Dr. Farhan called you up and asked that your brother repeat the test free of charge…i dont see the reason why you didnt take up his offer and had it repeated……did you not want to prove that you were right that his test was negative or that you did not want to prove true that Dr. Essa had the correct result the first time.
It is common knowledge that all the people working in Agha khan are or have been Dr. Essa’s students…..even the technicians have been working and have been trained in Essa Lab
With you stooping so low , that not only you have tried to make negative publicity about Essa lab but also about your brother. Did you realize that now everyone would think that maybe your brother had HCV, which can be proved with time ( as you said 5-10 years!!) and that you have totally disregarded your own brother’s , your own blood’s privacy and respect!
It almost seems that someone has paid you to do this negative publicity . If your brothers test is negative you and your family should be happy and thank almighty Allah that he is free from a horrible disease . Brother i ask you to go distribute laddoos and thank Allah and pray that ruining someone elses reputation doesnt cause you to ruin your own!!!!
And all to all of you forwarded adressees, life is about respect. I hope you respect your organization as much as anyone elses and that when you use your work emails next time, please be aware that your seniors and your organizations such as EPLA, Habib Bank, Hubpower, Unilever, Siemens, Telecard and Standard chartered, Bank Alfalah, would take kindly for you using their name in such a disreputable fashion!
So brother Farhan all i ask is “think before you leap!!!”" especially when its about someones dignity, privacy and self-respect!
Regards,
Najeeb Alvi
*This comment has been edited earlier?*
Oh dear. The infamous chain mail. Now I’ve been in the mainstream media for some time, and there is something that I can say about handling such e-mails.
This is the rule of thumb: you never never never publish anything forwarded by an e-mail unless it came straight from the source, and the source is known to you. And THEN you verify it from all parties cited. No matter how “important” the news is. When it’s a libel case (defamation), it’s your honor as well as the affected person’s honor on line, and this is a line that is never crossed without verification, re-verification, and the exercise of the good sense.
There is no “for your info only” in such cases. The golden rule is, would you like a false piece of info about you circulated just for info, and be asked to verify or deny it? No? then use the same logic when passing on edfamatory info about others.
All societies have one rule for rumor: pass it on only to the relevant authorities, and never to the public. It always causes harm. Remember the Hot ‘n’ Spicy virus rumor? That put their business down for days.
Even if this information is true, this is not the way for the affected to deal with it. He should have written to the concerned authorities, the judicial authorities, and as the last resort: press. The press has the means to verify the news, and they will not let a juicy opportunity pass.
Besides there is always the good sense test: there are many people who will be phobic of tests after these rumors, from Essa or anywhere. Panic of this sort just must not be spread. I only appreciate Dr. Awab and Huma’s discretion in this regard.
For the interest of the affected (Essa? The claimer?), and to avoid any legal notice this post should remove the e-mail IMMEDIATELY and post an explanatory note instead.
For your info, I was served a legal notice for using the words “Got Brains?” in one of the posts on KMB – the words turned out to be the trademark slogan of a company. I changed the words (after protesting with the company).
P.S. As for the “doctors” who commented. Please! It could be any impersonator teen having a laugh. You just CANNOT use a public forum for making serious allegations! Karachi Metblog must not feature such things at all. Leave it to the real journalists.
@MB
I don’t know some of the people writing comments here. Maybe you do, as one of the authors at KMB.
Could it be possible that a proxy war has been started here ? First there were some people posing as doctors going for Dr Essa’s neck and now such strong support.
Maybe you need to close this thread if the person with the complaint refuses to come forward.
@MS.QU3ST @MB
I checked with the lady in question. She doesn’t live here, so I emailed her after getting the info from you.
She’s had the PCR done and grateful that she’s HCV negative.
Thanks again for the info and followup.
@Red snapper:
Thanks dear for the help and support. Yes i am about to wind up this topic. I was just waiting for last “jasoos” of mine to give me a final report. Then i will probably post a long one with the findings. Thanks again for trying at your level.
About proxy war, Well, I was myself amazed at this change but i guess it was because initially people with anger posted their views & now those who have some info are posting.
sorry SARAH(!!!D) all i meant was that it is a serious Post even if it comes from MB. look at the # of comments. Is the record broken or what???
Hey guyz,
The email i posted on the site , i also sent to Mr Farhan( the complainer!!!) who had widely forwarded this email to everyone and still keeps coming back to my inbox. He has apparently complained of my “spam mail” to gmail?!!! I mean look who’s talking. I mean who exactly started this email forwarding thingy………..I guess mr farhan should be a number one complainer for the guinness world of book record.
Guilty people stab your back and hide behind masks, come forward and argue like a man…….if you are one that is????
My last plea for people with logic ” if god forbid i was diagnosed with cancer, i would have a test done a couple of more times to confirm if its positive or if i have the disease….i was diagnosed with a tumor once and had it done again in england and it was negative, now i dont go around forwarding emails to defame anyone..i was just glad that i was clear and alive, their saying it did not give me the disease…….
so my last word would be that we are not idiots, we can recognize the truth or if its a malicious intent
regards,
najeeb
Mr. Farhan ask for a life now!
Are we reaching towards the conclusion of a cunning defaming conspiracy?
I think this thread serve the purpose, atleast next time people won’t be believing such mails at first place.
Bringing to attention what we all know that even AKU with its swamped system has made clerical errors resulting in lawsuits. While Essa Lab is probably one of the very few labs in Pakistan which are ISO quality certified but as a nation we are quick to put a blind eye on everything and trust a person who with a malicious intent tries to defame someone’s reputation, a reputation which is so hard to build. I hope Mr. Abdul Sami is right in saying that “atleast next time people won’t be believing such mails at first place”.
Well here are the findings in a summary:
This incident did happen and there is no doubt about it but the way it was put but Mr. Farhan was a bit too out of the way. He, in his bid to prove his point send the email to all over Karachi over groups and to prove his point even gave his contact information & claimed to attach two medical documents.
The incident was an individual case of mishandling and not the one in which the laboratory would have been itself involved. The laboratory, by not denying such reports from Mr. Farhan not only paved the way for his successful plot but make people believe that all that he said is true which was not the case as there was partial truth in it. The way he attached the documents was one also factor of people believing them.
It is very sad to mention here that most of us instead of contributing anything, only comment. Most of the people here not only did nothing but apposed any such move to have a serious look into the matter by saying it’s a fake email and should not have been put like this.
Well first of all we all know very well how much cooperative our institutions and people are when such incidents occur. We must here thank few guys from KMB and few friends who did all they could to get to the truth. We do have some SMS messages from Mr. Farhan and a voice recording but apart from that it was all silence from his side. All he asked for his to remove the email from this post which we did not accept obviously. He was absolutely refusing to cooperate. He even did not bother replying to emails. Instead we were at one point told by his side that he has gone to Islamabad. Therefore we have decided to not only put his complete email as it is but to provide his contact info as it is our right to do so.
It’s very interesting to note that in our quest for truth we came across few people who personally know about this story. But amazingly they not only refused to provide us any technical information but also kept their limits to a general view of the story thus not denying the fact that there was a mistake on laboratory’s part but also not ready to provide any further assistance in this regard.
This, sadly, also shows the mentality of our people who are willing to say all at the back but do not cooperate when they are required. We can certainly mention their names here but we have taken the information on condition of anonymity from them.
We are also thankful to the people who posted here which at times helped us a lot in understanding some important points. All and all I must say people like Mr. Farhan will not dare do any such adventure again, or in such a case exaggerate over facts. But we as a society need to take such things seriously. It’s not a case of only one email. Had this been, GOD forbid true about Dr. Essa it would be a great concern to all. Also, although such institutes are not obviously answerable to us they should at least publish a denial considering it a public concern.