UPPER DIR, Sept 1: An eight-year-old girl is under treatment in the District Headquarters Hospital, Timergara, after a surgeon of the Upper Dir DHQ allegedly refused to treat her during duty hours.

Maria was brought to the Upper Dir hospital on Aug 23 after she felt severe pain in her abdomen but Dr Mohammad Islam refused to examine her.

“Dr Mohammad Islam told me to wait in the OPD for 20 minutes, but he didn’t come. When I again requested him to examine my daughter who was in severe pain he straightaway refused,” the girl’s father said.

He said the child had started screaming and rolling on the floor out of pain in her abdomen during the night. He said his daughter’s appendix split open due to the delay in her treatment as she was taken to the Timergara hospital the next day (Aug 24).

He said a doctor in the Timergara hospital told him that the girl would be operated upon but she had only one per cent chance to survive.

The girl was operated upon by a panel of doctors comprising surgeon Dr Bakht Sarwar and Dr Asghar Ali on Aug 24. The girl underwent pancreatitis and appendix operations at the same time, which lasted for almost three hours.

The girl’s father said he had brought into the notice of the executive district officer, health, the misbehaviour.