LAHORE/ISLAMABAD, Apr 28:
Pakistani doctors treating a comatose Sarabjit Singh here today said there has been no improvement in his condition and chances of survival are “slim” even as his distraught family visited him and demanded that he be sent to India for better treatment.
More than 45 hours after death row convict Sarabjit was admitted to Jinnah Hospital with a severe head injury, there has been “no sign” of recovery or improvement in his condition, the doctors were quoted as saying by sources.
The doctors believe 49-year-old Sarabjit’s chances of survival are “slim” as he sustained injuries over a widespread area of his head that led to unconsciousness.
Sarabjit’s sister Dalbir Kaur, wife Sukhpreet Kaur and daughters Swapandeep and Poonam, visited him at the hospital after arriving here today from India.
A senior doctor of the State-run Jinnah Hospital told reporters that Sarabjit’s sister, wife and two daughters were allowed to see him through a window from outside the intensive care unit as it was “not good for the patient as well as attendants to get close to each other”.
“Sarabjit Singh’s face is swollen, he was beaten with iron rods… He is unconscious, in a very critical condition…” his sister Dalbir Kaur said.
Sarabjit’s wife Sukhpreet has appealed to Pakistani authorities to send her husband back to India for better treatment.
Sources said his skull was fractured after being hit on the head with bricks and his face and torso cut with weapons fashioned from spoons and pieces of ghee tins during the brutal assault on Friday when he was attacked by at least six other prisoners within his barrack at Kot Lakhpat Jail.
The doctors found a haematoma (a localised collection of blood outside vessels) larger than 3 cm, indicating that he was in need of surgical intervention, sources told reporters.
Another source quoted doctors as saying that Sarabjit’s condition was measured as 5 on the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), which indicates the level of damage to a person’s central nervous system.
The lowest possible GCS score is 3 while the highest is 15. The GCS assesses level of consciousness after a profound head injury and Sarabjit’s reading indicated deep unconsciousness, making his treatment a major neurosurgical challenge for the medical board set up by authorities, the source said.
After the medical board examined Sarabjit again today, its members agreed it would not be possible to perform surgery on him at this stage.
The medical board’s members are Anjum Habib Vohra, neurosurgeon and principal of Post-Graduate Medical Institute, Jinnah Hospital neuro-department head Zafar Chaudhry and Naeem Kasuri, neuro-physician of King Edward Medical University.
A separate intensive care unit has been set up in Jinnah Hospital for Sarabjit because of security concerns.
People have been barred from approaching the unit and a large police contingent has been deployed there to guard him.
Meanwhile, the two main accused in the attack on Sarabjit have told investigators that they planned to kill him to take revenge for bombings he was accused of carrying out in Lahore in 1990.
According to a preliminary report prepared by Deputy Inspector General of Police (Prisons) Malik Mubashir, the accused – Amer Aftab and Mudassar, both death row prisoners – said they hated Sarabjit because he was accused of killing many Pakistanis in the bomb blasts in Lahore.
Aftab and Mudassar, however, could not offer satisfactory answers as to why they started hating Sarabjit and planned his murder only in the recent past even though both had been held in Kot Lakhpat Jail for several years.
Earlier today, India sought “regular consular access” to Sarabjit after Pakistani authorities imposed restrictions on meeting him.
Sarabjit was convicted by a Pakistani court for alleged involvement in the bombings in Punjab that killed 14 people.
Sarabjit’s family says he is the victim of mistaken identity and had inadvertently strayed across the border in an inebriated state.
His mercy petitions were rejected by the courts and former President Pervez Musharraf.
The outgoing Pakistan People’s Party-led Government put off Sarabjit’s execution for an indefinite period in 2008.
Sarabjit’s family says he is a victim of mistaken identity and had inadvertently strayed across the border in an inebriated state.
Meanwhile, Indian High Commission officials today visited Sarabjit Singh for the second time in as many days after permission was granted by Pakistani authorities following an initial denial.
“The officials visited Singh in the Lahore hospital. His condition remains unchanged,” spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs said.
The Pakistan government “provided second consular access to Indian diplomats presently stationed in Lahore”, said a statement issued by Foreign Office spokesman Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry.
The Indian officials were asked to coordinate with the Foreign Ministry’s Deputy Chief of Protocol, Camp Office Lahore and the medical superintendent of Jinnah Hospital for consular arrangements, Chaudhry said.
It could not immediately be ascertained whether Pakistan had granted consular access only for one visit by Indian officials to the ICU of Jinnah Hospital, where Sarabjit is being treated.
Official sources in New Delhi said, that India is also seeking permission for the Indian members of the India-Pakistan judicial committee to visit Sarabjit.
The judicial committee is presently inspecting prisoners in Rawalpindi.
Foreign Office spokesman Chaudhry said Pakistan was “committed to provide all assistance necessary to the family of Sarabjit and will continue to cooperate with the Indian authorities in this regard”.
He said the Indian national’s family members had visited Jinnah Hospital and met “doctors and saw Sarabjit”.
“The hospital offered a room for the family members to stay, in case they wanted to be close to the patient. However, they chose to stay in a hotel. Family members will be able to visit Sarabjit whenever they want and full cooperation is being given to them by the Punjab Government and the hospital staff,” Chaudhry said.(PTI)
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