A woman from Dhaandhoo Island of Gaafu Alif atoll has died awaiting her flight to Malé City.

42-year-old Azma Najeeb had suffered a bleeding stroke and was streaked to the nearest health center, located on another island, only to be told that it was ill-equipped to treat her condition.

Najeeb succumbed to her condition at the center in Villingili. Shuaib Abdulla, a member of Dhaandhoo’s island council, said she was taken to the hospital after hastroke at around 18:00 on Thursday.

Shuaib had accompanied the mother-of-three to Villingilli, and added that it was around 20:00 when they had managed to reach a doctor.

“The doctors said she had a hemorrhagic stroke and that they were not equipped to treat her” Shuaib said.

The hospital had deemed her condition urgent and requested transfer with the public health insurance scheme, Aasandha, which was, according to Shuaib, able to arrange a ‘chartered’ flight through Maldivian, the national airline, only for 03:00 on Friday.

The airline’s Managing Director, Abdulla Haris, told RaajjeMV that they had not received any requests for a chartered flight nor any were there any attempts to expedite transportation. Maldivian said that there was only a request to place a patient on the next scheduled flight, which was the aircraft Najeeb was to board on Friday.

Aasandha had not responded to calls at the time of press.

“The Maldivian flag grants its protection and security to everyone under it, protection and security not granted to Azma, those in-charge of our institutions should hold themselves responsible for what happened” Shuaib added describing Aasandha to be responsible for Najeeb’s death through negligence.

Shuaib also said he had contacted members of parliament, senior officials of the health industry, and even national security to aid in transportation.

While the politicians and officials kept vowing to ‘handle’ the matter, the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) refused to violate their policy not to operate helicopters at night.