Self-immolation attempt: Family shifts man out of PIMS

24-year-old university student suffered third-degree burns on 90% of his body, says PIMS Burns Centre medical staff.

ISLAMABAD:

The family of a man who survived an attempt to self-immolate on Saturday shifted him out of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) a day later to get treatment elsewhere, hospital and police officials confirmed.

AM, a 24-year-old university student, suffered third-degree burns on 90 per cent of his body, according to PIMS Burns Centre medical staff. Third-degree burns are considered full thickness burns which destroy the entire layer of skin, according to staff at the centre.

“The patient’s condition was still critical with third-degree burns when his family decided to shift him to another hospital on Sunday,” a PIMS Burns Centre medical officer said.

The man and his family are originally from Lahore but he was studying at the National University of Modern Languages in Islamabad.

A duty officer at the Kohsar police station, who looked after the case on Saturday, said the patient’s parents wanted to take him to the Burns Centre at the Combined Military Hospital in Kharian cantonment.

The Kohsar police have registered an attempted suicide case against the man, but they have not been able to confirm why he tried to take his own life. They said the man told them he tried to commit suicide of his own volition.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2014.