Child injured in stove explosion dies

Victim’s father complains his daughters were discharged without proper treatment.

ISLAMABAD:

A child who was injured in a stove explosion that took place in Rawalpindi last month died here on Saturday after suffering multiple organ failure.

Hamda Imran, 3, was one of the eight members of a family who were admitted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) Burns Centre after a stove exploded in their house in Shakrial on January 18.

Meanwhile, her mother remains on ventilator while two of her sisters, Alishba, 9 and Arisha, 6, are struggling to survive after being discharged.

“I have already lost one daughter. I do not want to lose the other two,” said Hamda’s father Imran.



The Burns Centre’s administration discharged two daughters without providing them complete treatment, and when he takes them to have their bandages changed, the security guard does not let them in, he claimed. “They are in extreme pain. I am running from pillar to post to save my daughters. I do not know what else to do or where to go.”

“It is because there is not enough space at the centre to keep the patients for long, therefore after necessary treatment they are discharged to allow for the new ones. However, it is true that after early discharge, some patients died after returning home,” said a staffer at the burn centre who asked not to be named.

Pims spokesperson Dr Ayesha Ishani was not available for an official comment.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 2^nd, 2014.