DOHA • A young Indonesian maid, allegedly being mistreated, suffered severe hip bone fractures after she jumped from the first floor of her sponsor’s house.

Despite her injuries and severe pain, the maid managed to walk some distance and get a taxi to reach her country's embassy. “With the intense pain from her hip bone fractures, she could not manage to walk anymore. After getting off the cab, she crawled into the embassy premises, I was told,” Gulfan Afero, first secretary at the mission, said.

The incident took place about 10 days ago. Afero said at that time the embassy was closed as she came in quite late in the evening. He said the emergency staff called him and he rushed to the mission.

“She was in extreme pain when I saw her. I immediately called an ambulance and took her to the accident and emergency unit at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC),” Afero said.

X-rays were taken, which suggested that she had fractured hip bones. Doctors initially advised her rest. But after further X-rays, it has been decided that she should undergo an emergency operation.

“I visited her at the hospital on Thursday and doctors told me that she has to undergo an operation on Sunday (tomorrow) to fix plates in her hip bones. I have signed the necessary papers on her behalf. We are her family here,” an emotionally charged Afero told this newspaper.

“We have informed her about the operation and told her not to worry."

The maid, Cicih binti Sudin Abad, is barely 22. She is unmarried and comes from a poor family from West Java in Indonesia.

Cicih was employed by a Qatari household for a while. She told the embassy that she was being mistreated by the sponsor. For a small mistake, he would kick her and bash her up. Of late, the employer had turned more irritable as he had been separated from his wife. “He was always in a foul mood and would start battering me at the slightest provocation,” Cicih told Afero.

Cicih was fed up and wanted to escape but could not. One evening, she became so desperate that she jumped from the window of a room on the first floor of the sponsor's house and suffered fractures, Afero said.

He said that the embassy had immediately reported the matter to the police and investigations are on. "Law enforcement agencies are suspicious about the whole case when Cicih said she had had jumped from the window of her sponsor's house and broke her hip bones. They nevertheless said they will take finger prints around the window to rule out possibilities of her being pushed," Afero said.

The investigators are not taking any chances. They have referred the matter to the Public Prosecution which shows how serious they are in probing the incident, said Afero.

“We have contacted social workers at HMC urging them to help provide a lawyer as the case is likely to be referred to court,” the embassy official said.