Scores of people protest ‘botched’ surgery

‘Dr Irfan severed a major vein while operating on Hussain’

FAISALABAD: Scores of residents of Jahanian staged a demonstration on Sunday to protest against a doctor who, they said, had botched a surgical procedure on a man who later lost his life.

The protesters gathered at Khatm-i-Nabuwat Chowk in Chiniot. They placed the dead body in the middle of the road and blocked the traffic.

Allah Rakha, one the protesters said, Ghulam Hussain had been complaining about pain in his stomach four months ago and was taken to a local hospital. “Dr Irfan diagnosed an appendix rupture and said that he urgently needed to undergo surgery. He performed the operation and discharged Hussain a few days later.”



Rakha said however, Hussain’s condition continued to deteriorate. “We took him to the Sargodha DHQ hospital where doctors referred him to a hospital in Faisalabad.”

There Hussain remained in the intensive care unit but died soon after, he said. “When we asked the doctors for the cause of death, they said the surgeon who operated on him had ruptured a major vein because of which his condition had deteriorated after the surgery.”

The protesters blocked the Khatam-i-Nabuwat Chowk for traffic moving towards Jhang, Lahore, Sargodha and Faisalabad. They shouted slogans against Dr Irfan and demanded that he be arrested without delay.

A heavy police contingent headed by the Chiniot City SHO visited the demonstration and told the protesters that they would arrest the doctor if a medical report proved medical malpractice. The police also seized the body and sent it to a morgue for post-mortem examination.

The protesters then called off the protest.

When contacted for comment, Dr Irfan said, “I’m a qualified surgeon, not a quack…The allegation of medical malpractice is false. Hussain had cancer. The disease claimed his life.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2015.