BADIN: A 12-year-old girl Naima Khaskheli from Pangrio town in Badin district lost her arms and legs after a botched medical treatment reportedly by quacks in the town leaving the doctors in Karachi with no other option but to amputate her infected limbs when she was brought to them at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

The distraught parents along with civil society and political organisations protested on Sunday to highlight the plight of the amputee child.

It all began with a simple ailment of diarrhoea four months ago, according to Naima’s father Hanif Khashkheli. He first took her to a private clinic run by Moti Bheel in Pangrio town for treatment. However, she did not become better. He then decided to take her to another private clinic run by Dr Mukhtiar Ahmed Arain. “She stayed at the clinic for about three days and seemed to recover from the illness. But when we brought her home a couple of days later there was swelling in her arms and legs,” said Hanif, a donkey-cart rider and father of five girls.

Naima was taken back to Dr Arain who declined to treat her and instead referred her to Badin Civil Hospital. The doctors at Badin Civil Hospital bailed out and referred her to the JPMC in Karachi. By the time, the case was handed over to the surgeons at JPMC, it was too late. Infection had set in her limbs and she was operated upon during which her arms and legs had to be severed.

Unfortunately, the woes of Hanif and Naima have not ended. Having returned from Karachi to their hometown, Naima needs daily post-operative dressings which Badin Civil Hospital have declined and now this donkey-cart rider father, whose monthly income is around Rs20,000 a month, and has incurred a couple of lakhs for his daughter’s medical expenses, is getting it done by a doctor who does home visits.

When this correspondent went to meet Dr Arain to take his version, in his defence he said that by the time Naima was brought to him, her condition was already serious. “An intravenous cannula [a small, flexible tube] was placed in one of her veins in her arm,” he said. “She was earlier treated by Moti Bheel who might have administered her with wrong medicines intravenously,” he added. This correspondent set off to meet Moti Bheel but he had closed his shop and was nowhere to be found.

Hanif has brought the attention of civil society and political organisations to his amputee daughter’s condition and they all claim that this is not an uncommon occurrence in Badin district as scores of quacks operate without any fear of repercussion.

For the past two days they have been holding protests demanding the government to probe the matter thoroughly and take severe action against fraud doctors in Badin district.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2016