A Mizoram MLA, who is a trained surgeon, on Wednesday attended to a woman who required an emergency procedure.

According to a report, Dr K Beichhua, a qualified MBBS graduate from the Regional Medical College in Imphal, decided to carry out the operation when he heard that the surgeon at Saiha district hospital was away on a training programme in Imphal.

The woman was suffering from severe abdominal pain and needed immediate surgery. Her stomach had a large perforation and had she been unattended to, she may have died. Dr Beichhua ignored his political engagements for the day to perform the surgery.

The 52-year-old MLA completed his medical degree in 1991, and was a general practitioner for about 20 years before entering politics and joining the Mizo National Front (MNF) in 2013.

“I have performed hundreds of operations during my career, but the last one was in December 2013 after I got elected as an MLA,” he told Hindustan Times.

The Saiha civil hospital has seven doctors, but only one surgeon, who was away at a training camp in Imphal when the patient developed complications and required the operation.