A woman died after a former security guard at a hospital in Pakistan posed as a doctor and performed surgery on her, police have said.
Shameema Begum, 80, died on Sunday, two weeks after Muhammad Waheed Butt attempted to treat her back wound at a public hospital in the eastern city of Lahore.
“We can’t keep up with what every doctor and what everyone is doing at all times. It’s a large hospital,” said an administrative official at Lahore’s Mayo hospital who did not want to be named.
He said it was unclear what type of surgery the impostor had performed in the operating theatre, where a qualified technician was also present.
Pakistan’s public hospitals, where patients are required to pay towards treatment, can often be inefficient and chaotic.
Begum’s family paid Butt for the operation and two further home visits to dress her wound. When the bleeding and pain worsened, her family returned her to the hospital where they discovered what had happened.
Her body is being kept for an autopsy to ascertain whether her death was a result of complications from the botched surgery.
“The guard has been charged and is in police custody,” said a Lahore police spokesperson, Ali Safdar. “Butt had posed as a doctor and made home visits to other patients in the past also.”
Mayo hospital staff said Butt was fired two years ago for trying to extort money from patients.
Earlier in May, a man was arrested for posing as a doctor at Lahore general hospital and extorting money from patients in the surgical ward.
In 2016, it was revealed that a woman posing as a neurosurgeon had been conducting operations for eight months alongside qualified doctors at Lahore’s Services hospital, the second largest health facility in Pakistan.