I WRITE these lines not just as a desperate mother from Ghotki, but as a voice for countless families betrayed by a healthcare system that should be saving lives, not destroying them. Since February 2024, our lives have been a horrifying ordeal, marked by a callous disregard for our daughter’s precious life by the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD).

Our one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Zimal Fatima, underwent angiography in Sukkur on Nov 6, 2024, and a surgery was scheduled for Nov 16. It was heartlessly cancelled after five days of agonising wait.

Subsequent appointments in Karachi have met the same fate, with NICVD offering pathetic excuses of ‘shortages’ and ‘administrative hurdles’. Meanwhile our daughter’s condition continues to deteriorate.

The actions of one staff member expose the rot within NICVD. His shifting stories, his blatant lies, and his deliberate obstruction of our daughter’s care are not mere incompetence; they are a symptom of a deeper problem. When he refused to even admit her, we were forced to seek help from the hospital administrator, who was kind enough to help us. However, it came to our knowledge that the staff in question took this as a personal insult, and further sabotaged the case by even giving a negative and biased report to the surgeon concerned.

We are not seeking revenge against any staff. We presume he has connections within NICVD. We understand the potential repercussions of speaking out, and we know that there may be dangerous consequences. However, someone has to raise their voice against such behaviour. How many more children must suffer and die before the Sindh government would think about waking up to the reality? Our daughter’s life is on the line. This is not just a medical issue; it is a crisis of governance, and a stain on the conscience of Sindh.

Rehana Yasmin
Ghotki

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2025