Karachi: Two of Karachi’s largest ambulance networks—Edhi and Chhipa had halted their services for several hours on August 19 as torrential rains submerged the city, a suspension that directly led to the deaths of multiple patients who could not reach hospitals in time, officials, doctors and rescue workers have revealed.
Background interviews with health officials, doctors and officials of ambulance services revealed that fleets of both welfare services were grounded by afternoon on Tuesday, August 19, 2025 when rising water made it impossible for their mostly aging hi-roof vans to navigate roads. “Nearly 90 percent of ambulances stalled within minutes. The decision to stop operations left patients with no transport at all,” a senior Sindh health department officer confirmed to Vitalsnews.
The collapse of ambulance access turned Karachi’s rain emergency into a health catastrophe. Calls to Edhi and Chhipa hotlines went unanswered as families pleaded for help. Heart attack victims, women in labour, and critically ill patients were stranded in homes and vehicles. “We received hundreds of calls but could not move. We were helpless against the floods,” admitted an Edhi Foundation representative. A Chhipa official acknowledged the same: “Our ambulances simply could not operate in such conditions.”
The consequences were devastating. Dr. Farhan, a senior physician from Gulshan-e-Iqbal, lost his mother while trying to reach a specialized facility. With no ambulance available, he attempted to drive her himself, but his car stalled in waist-deep water. “She died in front of me without care, and I could not even take her body to a morgue,” he told relatives.
A 22-year-old pregnancy women from Ranchore Lines delivered her baby in the backseat of a car after floodwater blocked every route to Sobhraj Maternity Hospital. Her family had repeatedly dialed ambulance helplines but none could be dispatched. “She gave birth in a car surrounded by water,” a relative said, calling it a nightmarish experience.
Doctors across the city described scenes of futility inside major hospitals, including JPMC, NICVD, Civil Hospital and the Trauma Centre. “From 2pm onwards, we kept receiving distress calls of heart attacks and complicated pregnancies but no patients reached us. We had doctors, medicines and empty beds. But without ambulances, there was nothing we could do,” a senior JPMC physician told The News.
Sindh health officials believe the human toll was far higher than the 15 officially reported deaths from drowning, electrocution and wall collapses. “Dozens of patients perished at home because ambulances could not reach them. These are indirect casualties, but they will never enter official lists,” an official admitted.
Inside hospitals, staff spoke of “unprecedented helplessness.” A senior nurse at JPMC said: “We stood ready, but patients were dying unseen in traffic jams and flooded homes. Every unanswered call for an ambulance was a life lost.”
Experts argue the tragedy was not unforeseeable. Welfare services have long warned that their vans are unfit for floods, yet no steps were taken to equip Karachi with high-clearance vehicles or rescue boats. “Without flood-ready ambulances, the next heavy rain will repeat this disaster,” a senior Edhi official warned.
Health department officers and doctors are now pressing for a comprehensive disaster-health plan. They recommend drainage upgrades, high-clearance emergency vehicles, resilient hospital power backup, satellite communications and mobile health units for flood-prone areas. “Karachi cannot remain unprepared; rain will return every year, and so will preventable deaths unless we act,” one senior health officer stressed.
Repeated attempts to reach Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab for comment went unanswered. But for the families of those who died waiting for ambulances, the verdict is clear: on August 19, it was not just Karachi’s streets that drowned in water—it was its people who drowned in neglect.
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