A father complained that the doctors at the French Medical Institute for Mothers and Children (FMIC) made mistakes during surgery on his infant daughter. 

Gul Agha, a displaced person, fled the previous conflict in the northern province of Kunduz and came to Kabul. He lives in a camp full of displaced people in the Bagrami district of Kabul. 

“This is my daughter. She had a hole in her heart. I took her to the FMIC hospital. She went through a surgery. They took 150,000 Afs for the operation. Her chest structure is still not fixed. They (doctors) asked me for another 60,000 Afs,” he said. “Where can I find this money? I have 100,000 Afs income.”  

But a head official within the FMIC said that the side effects were a common issue in heart operations. 

“The chest structure not healing properly--it happens. We have three types of heart surgery,” said Abdul Basheer Sakhi Zada, head of the FMIC.  

Gul Aga said that his son also had a hole in his heart.

He said his son died after he couldn’t provide the amount of money to pay for the surgery.  

“My son had a hole in his heart. I begged people to give some money to treat him but no one helped me. My son died. I was very disappointed,” he said.  

FMIC said that it performs nearly 120 heart operations per year. Based on figures of the International Committee of the Red Cross, over 1,000 children struggling with similar heart conditions have been registered this year in Afghanistan.  

At least 6,000 children affected by heart problems have yet to be treated.