10-year-old elder brother fighting for life in Sukkur hospital
According to reports, Naheed Khatoon lit a candle during the night at their mud house in Khanpur Mahar, Ghotki, after the electricity was cut off, and then went back to sleep.
After a while, she woke up to raging flames, reportedly caused by the candle's fall. The inferno caused severe burn injuries to Naheed's two sons, Babar and Yousuf, and minor ones to herself.
Locals rushed to their house to put out the fire, and shifted the injured to Khanpur hospital, where doctors advised them to go to civil hospital Sukkur. Yousuf, 7, who reportedly suffered with 85% burns, succumbed to injuries in Sukkur. Babar, 10, is said to be critical with around 70% burns while Naheed's condition is said to be out of danger.
Talking to The Express Tribune from the hospital, Naheed said there was no electricity so she lit up a candle and, tired after a full day's work, went to sleep. "I don't know how and when the candle fell and triggered fire, but I jumped off my bed and tried to rescue my sons as soon as the smoke and flames woke me up, but till then we all had been severely burnt," she recalled from her hospital bed.
She explained that her husband, Mohammad Nawaz Laghari, was not home at the time. Last night when they were brought to the hospital, there was not a single doctor to look at them, she said, adding that in the morning [on Sunday], an influential from Ghotki asked doctors to look after them following which their proper checkup was done.
Doctors at the hospital said they are doing their best to save Babar's life.
There is no burn unit in any of upper Sindh's hospitals, so critical patients are mostly referred to Karachi, with many succumbing to their serious injuries en route.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 22nd, 2016.
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