“This leg has been causing me so much pain…Why have they done this? This leg of mine, the unhealthy one, is shaking, it has gangrene. It is quite literally killing me.”
Diabetes patient Terlan Mammadova was recently told that as a result of her diabetes, her left leg needed to be operated on and removed. Yesterday on the 24th of June she went to the Angiology Microsurgery Center under The Ministry of Health for her operation.
Waking up from the surgery, the 87 year old woman was unable to believe her eyes. Instead of her inflamed and infected left leg, doctors had removed her right and healthy leg.
“They told me that the left leg would be removed from the calf up. They dressed up my leg themselves. While the sick leg was lying clearly in sight of them, they cut off my right healthy leg.” she told Meydan TV.
Ms. Mammadova is outraged. Her daughter is, too: “The doctor said that the right leg was perfectly healthy. We wanted his opinion just in case. But he said himself that there was nothing wrong with her leg. He told us he’d removed her left leg, and that she would feel much better as a result after the operation and the initial healing period passed.”
They concluded an agreement with surgeon Valeh Karimov. But after the operation, the doctor was nowhere to be seen. The patient’s relatives said that V. Karimov had escaped without giving a single explanation for his actions. Police were then called to the scene.
“Coming out of the operation, the doctor called my brother. He looked strange as he walked out of the operation room. I suspected something was wrong. My sister took a look, and told us that there had been a mistake. It didn’t even occur to me that something like this could happen. We had no idea what to do.” said Tahire Aliyeva.
Terlan Mammadova: “I wasn’t able to sleep the entire night because of the pain in my left leg. I’m going to tell the doctor, ‘I told you to cut this one! What got into you, from where did you get the idea to cut off my health leg?'”
“The government must look into this event. The woman has been awarded the status of Mother Heroine. She is the mother of 11, and even served in the back lines of the war. Her service should be respected. If they don’t help her, I will go to foreign countries, to the ends of the world to find the help she needs.” says Tahire Aliyeva.
From the Ministry of Health, Meydan TV found out that a committee has been created to look into the matter. Amongst the members of the committee are medical staff and human rights defenders.
