KARACHI: A two-year-old Pakistani girl with a congenital heart defect has been sent to India for treatment at government expense, officials in the Sindh province health department said yesterday.
Narain Fatima, daughter of Fayyaz Wistro, was born with the defect.
After seeing reports about helplessness of the girl-child’s poor parents in media, provincial health officials contacted them and arranged for her treatment in a hospital in the Indian city of Bangalore.
“Following a directive from Health Minister Owais Muzaffar to arrange for treatment of the girl at government expenses, we have sent her with her mother to Bangalore,” a senior official said.
Wistro, a resident of Naushahro Feroze, told newsmen in Karachi that his was a poor family which could not bear the expenses of the costly treatment.
“The government has sent my daughter to India and we are happy that now she will lead a normal life,” he said. Meanwhile, the health minister visited the Civil Hospital in Karachi yesterdaya long with senior officials of the health department.
Muzaffar was not happy to see a defective air-conditioning system and absence of a ventilator in the hospital’s emergency department. He also noticed that the hospital had no biochemical equipment while encroachment surrounding the hospital was annoyingly chaotic Internews
