PESHAWAR: The first doctor who had attended to Malala Yousafzai after she was attacked in Mingora in 2012 has appealed to the activist and Nobel laureate to consider building a neurosurgery hospital in her home province, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), to provide treatment for those with similar needs as well as others.
Peshawar Lady Reading Hospital’s surgeon Dr Mumtaz Ali, while speaking to a local news channel said that a hospital in the province would help to ease the pain of brain injuries, as well as, treating them.
He was of the opinion that Malala could be pivotal in raising funds for this particular project in the memory of the terrorist occupation of her hometown in Mingora, Swat and the mindless attack on her.
Dr Mumtaz further added that a neurosurgery hospital in KP would be a big service to the whole nation.
He expressed his disappointment over her not being able to make time to meet him during her first trip to Pakistan after the terrorist attack six years ago but added that he was happy that she had visited home.
The doctor observed that it might be possible that Malala was not informed about him or could not meet him due to a tight security plan, however, the entire nation including him was proud of her anyway. Especially for winning the Nobel peace prize.
Dr Mumtaz Ali was the first doctor who was called in from Lady Reading Hospital to operate on Malala at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Peshawar. The doctor told the media that she was unconscious and had a critical head injury when he had first seen her.
“She looked pale and the CT scan showed the left part of the brain was severely injured,” the doctor had said in an earlier interview.
He said that he along with a senior neurosurgeon and a brigadier at CMH had tended to her later that night, two days after which she was transported abroad for further treatment.
