Mara to bear Mohamad Sahar’s medical and flight costs

Hospital has agreed to release him if a doctor and nurse accompany him and medical equipment including a ventilator are provided on the flight.

PETALING JAYA: Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) will bear the medical and flight costs to bring home a Mara college chief clerk who suffered a stroke on arrival in London last week.

Mohamad Sahar Mhd Noor, chief clerk of the Mara skills training college in Negeri Sembilan, whose family launched a public appeal to meet hospital expenses of £40,000 (about RM250,000) at Charing Cross Hospital in west London.

About £25,000 (RM134,000) has been raised so far.

However, rural development minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said Mara would now bear the hospital fees as well as the cost of flying him home.

Mohamad Sahar’s plight got the attention of Malaysians after he suffered a stroke shortly after arriving at Heathrow airport on July 4 to attend his daughter’s graduation ceremony.

The minister told the Berita Harian newspaper that Charing Cross hospital had agreed to release Mohamad Sahar on Monday, but he must be provided a doctor and nurse as well as medical equipment including a ventilator in the airplane.

Ismail Sabri said Mohamad Sahar was still unconscious after surgery and requires the care of doctors during the flight. The same medical equipment he required in the hospital will be used.

“All hospital, flight costs and the costs of the escorting doctors and nurses will be handled by Mara,” he said at Kuala Terengganu Umno’s Hari Raya open house.