A ‘sore-ful’ existence

Children have open sores all over their bodies, which grow worse every day as they are not getting any treatment.

DAHARKI: Wali Muhammad Bhatti watches helplessly as his five children writhe in agony. Afflicted with a skin disease, the children have open sores all over their bodies, which grow worse every day because they are not getting any treatment. One of the girls is said to be in serious condition.

According to residents of Tahir Bhatti village, the man tried to set himself and his children on fire. Residents rushed to his house when they heard the children’s screams and saved the family from a gory death.

“I cannot watch my little children in such pain,” said the father, “Death is better than such existence.” Bhatti said his children cannot sleep in the night or even sit because of their pain. “All day they just keep standing,” he said.

The children, 11-year-old Yasmin, eight-year-old Naseema, seven-year-old Farhaz and one-year-old Sohrab, have been afflicted with a skin disease for as long as Bhatti can remember. Bhatti is a daily-wage labourer. Having no means to get medical help for his children, he has no choice but to watch his children become sicker.

The incharge at the village dispensary, Pervaiz Bhatti, said that Wali Muhammad had been battling this disease for the last 11 years.

The children were taken to a hepatitis specialist, Dr Satiwan, in Ghotki district on August 25. The doctor had said the disease could be treated if the children were taken to a proper skin specialist in Karachi. However, Bhatti simply does not have the money to make the trip to Karachi.

When contacted by Express News, EDO Health Ayaz Jumani said that the children will be referred to a skin specialist, Dr Zubair Ahmed Memon, in Sukkur Civil Hospital.

However, the family’s three-hour ride to Sukkur did not have immediate results.

Pervaiz told The Express Tribune that the doctor there simply told them that the “children will grow out of it”. Diagnosing the disease as epidermolysis bullosa, Dr Memon told the father that his children cannot be treated in district hospitals.

He prescribed antibiotic syrups and vitamins for the children but the hospital failed to give the medicines to Bhatti.

“The family will go see the EDO Health on Wednesday,” Pervaiz said, “Now it all depends on him whether he takes the children to Karachi or buys them medicines.”

The children are due for another check up at the Sukkur Civil Hospital eight days from now.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2010.