Karachi: In a city where parents of critically ill newborns are often seen going from hospital to hospital in desperation, ambulance staff of SIEHS 1122 recall spending nearly eleven hours inside an ambulance just to keep a premature baby alive as every healthcare facility they approached refused admission due to the unavailability of an incubator.
Such incidents capture the grim reality faced by emergency workers in Karachi, where a shortage of incubators, broken roads and gridlocked traffic regularly stand between life and death for newborns in need of immediate care.
In response to this recurring crisis, the Sindh Health Department has deployed incubator-equipped ambulances across the province in what officials describe as a major shift in neonatal emergency care.
According to the department, more than 5,000 newborns have already benefitted from this service within just one year. At present, nine ambulances in Karachi and 25 across Sindh are fitted with incubators that allow trained technicians to stabilise newborns during transit by maintaining oxygen levels, temperature and breathing support until a hospital bed is secured.
Officials say the target is to ensure that at least one such ambulance is available in every district so that no family is forced to beg for space in emergency wards while their child fights for survival on the road.
Health experts estimate that thousands of infants in Pakistan die each year simply because they fail to receive timely medical intervention. The availability of incubator ambulances now enables emergency teams to begin life-saving care on the move rather than waiting for hospital admission.
Pakistan continues to rank among the countries with the highest newborn mortality rates, with an estimated 37 deaths per 1,000 live births.
In low-income settlements of Karachi, studies have recorded newborn deaths concentrated in the first three days of life, largely due to birth complications, infections and lack of immediate medical support.
Sindh health officials claim that neonatal mortality in the province has dropped to around 2.9 percent, but independent assessments suggest that survival still heavily depends on how quickly a newborn receives stabilisation after birth.
The Sindh Integrated Emergency Health Services, which runs the service under the 1122 network, has positioned itself as the backbone of emergency transport in the province. Handling hundreds of emergency calls daily, SIEHS operates ambulances equipped with advanced medical devices and staffed by trained emergency medical technicians.
The incubator units installed in select ambulances are designed to function as mini neonatal care stations, keeping premature and low-birthweight babies warm and oxygenated during long transfers, especially when hospital incubators are occupied.
Health officials acknowledge that while hospitals in Karachi and interior Sindh struggle with limited neonatal intensive care capacity, providing pre-hospital intervention through ambulances is proving to be a critical stopgap.
The long-term plan is to expand the fleet so that every district headquarters has at least one dedicated ambulance capable of neonatal transfers, reducing avoidable deaths caused by delays in securing incubator beds.
For many families, these ambulances have become more than just transport. In a health system where access often depends on income, contacts or sheer luck, a specialised ambulance service that begins treatment on the roadside offers something rare — a fair chance at survival for newborns who cannot wait.
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