Quack cases: Girl loses arm from ‘poisonous injection’

Saima went to a private clinic after stomach pains and lost her arm.

MULTAN:

A 12-year-old girl lost the use of her arm after being administered an injection by a quack.

According to police officials, Usmanabad village resident Saira was brought to a private clinic in the district after she had been suffering some pain in her abdomen. “I thought it was food poisoning and the doctor gave me an injection,” she said.

Locals in the area later said that the ‘doctor’ practicing at the clinic, Zahid Jameel, was actually a former dispenser. After 30 minutes after getting the injection, Saira told her father Muhammad Ismail that she was experiencing severe pain in her arm. “Soon the arm began turning blue and we took her to the hospital,” Ismail said. “When we questioned Jameel he said the pain was only temporary and advised bed rest but after we got home my daughter’s arm began to turn blue,” he added.

Saira said that she spent a day at home waiting for the pain to subside. “My arm was turning blue and it was completely numb but we assumed those were side effects. Ismail said that Jameel refused to see the patient the next day and closed the clinic. “Zahid Jameel is a local dispenser and a ward boy in THQ Shujabad. He was posing as a doctor but he has no degree or qualifications,” said a local resident Afzal. Ismail took his daughter to Nishtar Hospital where doctors said that the injection had been poisonous. “We are working to convince the family to amputate because the infection could spread. She will never use her arm again but keeping it risks her life,” Dr Murad Bhatti said. “This was the arm I used to write with and now I wont be able to take my exams or do anything else,” Saira said.

Ismail has appealed to the Punjab chief minister to take notice. He has submitted an application with the Shujaabad THQ MS for an inquiry into the incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2011.