Saturday, October 15, 2005
Killer quake's 'nowhere children' - BBC News
There is nobody to take five-year-old Zafar Khan home when doctors declare him fit to leave the dank and smelly hospital ward that has been his home for the past week.
The medics have very few clues about the family of this wounded boy ... What they do know ... is that Zafar's father died in last Saturday's earthquake which razed Dalanja village in Uri to the ground. They also know that Zafar's mother is nearly blind and largely immobile ...
Fate could not have been crueller to 15-year-old Mumtaz Ahmed and his seven-year-old sister Rubeena, who have been left holding each other. They became orphans when both their parents died of illnesses in a matter of months in the past two years.
The loss of parents meant that Mumtaz, the eldest of six siblings, including a disabled sister, took care of a family of children. He worked as a daily wage labourer and ran the small family farm to make ends meet. At least, the orphaned family had a roof over their heads.
Last week, the quake swallowed their house and left Rubeena severely wounded with a crushed right hand.
Six days after she was airlifted to the hospital, accompanied by Mumtaz, the doctors amputated her right hand after it began rotting.
...
There is some flickering reaffirmation of life in the middle of death in the gloomy hospital wards too. When seven-year-old Mohammed Altaf was taken out of the debris of his family house in Uri and airlifted to the hospital, he was in a coma.
His mother, Taaja, who came with him, was in shock, having lost her 15-day-old daughter in the rubble, and her son sinking fast.
A week later, Altaf has recovered miraculously. He is saluting and grinning at visitors and his mother is happy to take him back to their tent home.
There is nobody to take five-year-old Zafar Khan home when doctors declare him fit to leave the dank and smelly hospital ward that has been his home for the past week.
The medics have very few clues about the family of this wounded boy ... What they do know ... is that Zafar's father died in last Saturday's earthquake which razed Dalanja village in Uri to the ground. They also know that Zafar's mother is nearly blind and largely immobile ...
Fate could not have been crueller to 15-year-old Mumtaz Ahmed and his seven-year-old sister Rubeena, who have been left holding each other. They became orphans when both their parents died of illnesses in a matter of months in the past two years.
The loss of parents meant that Mumtaz, the eldest of six siblings, including a disabled sister, took care of a family of children. He worked as a daily wage labourer and ran the small family farm to make ends meet. At least, the orphaned family had a roof over their heads.
Last week, the quake swallowed their house and left Rubeena severely wounded with a crushed right hand.
Six days after she was airlifted to the hospital, accompanied by Mumtaz, the doctors amputated her right hand after it began rotting.
...
There is some flickering reaffirmation of life in the middle of death in the gloomy hospital wards too. When seven-year-old Mohammed Altaf was taken out of the debris of his family house in Uri and airlifted to the hospital, he was in a coma.
His mother, Taaja, who came with him, was in shock, having lost her 15-day-old daughter in the rubble, and her son sinking fast.
A week later, Altaf has recovered miraculously. He is saluting and grinning at visitors and his mother is happy to take him back to their tent home.
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