 Activists burn an effigy of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari as they shout anti-Pakistan slogans during a protest in New Delhi after Sarabjit Singh was rushed to a hospital after suffering serious injuries in a clash with fellow prisoners. AFP "When we met him in the ICU, he was just lying there. Doctors told us that his condition was critical. Please help us to save my brother's life," Dalbir Kaur added. She is accompanied by his wife Sukhpreet Kaur, and two daughters, Swapandeep and Poonam. "His daughters called him out 'Papa'. His wife called out to him. But he lay there like a stone. I could not understand what to say," said Dalbir Kaur. "I plead to our government with folded hands. Please take him to any country for his treatment. Don't waste time, save him. So far, when I tried to fight for his freedom, I only got hollow assurances," she said. "He is completely unconscious. He does not know anything. He is on ventilator," Dalbir Kaur said, adding that she could feel his breath and heart beat. 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 family visited him at the hospital after arriving from India. A senior doctor of the state-run Jinnah Hospital said 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". The distraught family of a comatose Sarabjit Singh was Sunday allowed to have a glimpse of him from a distance at the hospital where he is being treated after a brutal assault in a Pakistani jail. Asked if Sarabjit's relatives could have been allowed to get close to him after wearing protective clothing and masks, the doctor said: "We cannot take any chances with regard to the health of our patients. Sarabjit Singh is not in a condition that a visitor can be allowed to sit by him." A source said the hospital's administration and authorities were cautious about 49-year-old Sarabjit's security. "Someone cautioned the authorities that if the four ladies were allowed to enter the ICU where Sarabjit Singh has been lying in a coma, they might create a scene and cause further embarrassment for the government," the source said. Though the government had said it would allow one of Sarabjit's family members to stay in a room within Jinnah Hospital, the four women left for a hotel on the Mall Road after visiting the ICU. Sarabjit's relatives arrived in Pakistan through the Wagah land border crossing this afternoon after being granted visas by the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi. Sarabjit Singh, currently in coma in a hospital in Lahore following a brutal assault, should be sent to India for better treatment, his wife on Sunday said in an emotional appeal to Pakistani authorities. "We have learnt that Sarabjit is not getting good treatment in (Jinnah) hospital. It will be better if my husband is allowed to go back for treatment," Sukhpreet Kaur said while talking to reporters after crossing over to Pakistan at the Wagah land border crossing. Sarabjit, 49, was admitted to Jinnah Hospital on Friday after he was attacked by at least six other prisoners within his barrack at Kot Lakhpat Jail. Sukhpreet arrived in Pakistan this afternoon along with her daughters, Swapandeep and Poonam and Sarabjit's sister Dalbir Kaur. They were granted visas by the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi Saturday to visit Sarabjit. Sarabjit's counsel, Awais Shiekh, and members of civil society groups received them at Wagah. Sukhpreet said saving Sarbajit's life was the most important issue for her family. She said the Pakistan government should take action against those who attacked her husband and give them exemplary punishment as the incident had defamed the country. Dalbir Kaur, who has travelled to Pakistan in the past to lobby political leaders for the release of Sarabjit, said she and other members of her family were visiting the country in sad circumstances. "I've come to visit my brother, who is seriously injured and not speaking. I've been told he is in a coma," she said. She said she had come with the "love and prayers of crores of Indians" and brought "prashad" from the Golden Temple that she would give to her brother. Fighting back tears, she said, "I kept telling myself: How can you fall into a coma, Sarabjit? You have a family and you have to come back to your country." Dalbir Kaur thanked the people of Pakistan for their support. She said Pakistani authorities had granted permission for one member of the family to remain in the hospital and she intended to stay beside Sarabjit. Poonam said she had met her father only once in prison. "I was happy to see my father when I met him for the first time. But today I am sad to see him in a hospital in this condition and I pray to God for the health of my father," she said.  Dalbir Kaur (2L), sister of Sarabjit Singh, Singh's wife, Sukhpreet Kaur (L), and his daughters Poonam (R), and Swapandip(2R) praying at Golden temple in Amritsar. (AFP PHOTO) Sarabjit's kin will remain in Pakistan for 15 days. They will also visit Guru Nanak's birthplace of Nankana Sahib to offer special prayers for the recovery of Sarabjit. Foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai has asked Indian High Commission in Islamabad to make appropriate arrangements for their stay in Lahore. A government official told PTI that a room had been arranged for Sarabjit's family at Jinnah Hospital. Besides, arrangements for their accommodation have been made at Gurdwara Dera Sahib near Lahore Fort, he said. Sources said, Sarabjit was hit on the head with bricks and his face and torso cut with weapons fashioned from spoons and pieces of ghee tins. Sarabjit was convicted by a Pakistani court for alleged involvement in a string of bombings in Punjab that killed 14 people in 1990. Sarabjit's family says he is the victim of mistaken identity and had inadvertently strayed across the border in an inebriated state. 'Condition critical' Sarabjit has been intubated and linked to a ventilator in the intensive care unit of Jinnah Hospital. "Singh was diagnosed on Saturday with 3/15 glasgow coma scale (GCS); that elaborates upon his critical state of conscious level," one of the doctors treating him told Dawn. He said the GCS was a neurological scale aimed at assessing level of consciousness after profound head injury and the reading of 3/15 indicated deep unconsciousness.  Dalbir Kaur, sister of jailed Sarabjit Singh arrives with Singh's family members at Pakistan's Wagah border post from India. AP Sarabjit's treatment has thus turned out to be a major neurosurgical challenge for the medical board constituted by the authorities, the doctor said. Anjum Habib Vohra, senior neurosurgeon and principal of the Post-Graduate Medical Institute, Zafar Chaudhry, head of Jinnah Hospital's neuro department, and Naeem Kasuri, neuro physician of King Edward Medical University are members of the medical board. The doctor, who was not named, told Dawn that Sarabjit had suffered a critical bone fracture when he was taken to Jinnah Hospital's surgical emergency Friday evening. During clinical assessment, it was established that Sarabjit had diffused brain injury over a widespread area of his head that led to unconsciousness. Doctors also discovered a haematoma (a localised collection of blood outside the blood vessels) which was greater than three cm, which indicated that the patient was in dire need of surgical intervention. However, the medical board examined Sarabjit twice Saturday and doctors were of the view that there was no need for surgical intervention at this stage. Sarabjit is being kept in a separate intensive care unit in unprecedented police security and no one is being allowed to see him except doctors.  Sarabjit Singh's family crosses the Attari/Wagah border to meet him at Jinnah hospital, Pakistan. PTI
"Indian officials were given access to Sarabjit Singh only once. Thereafter, there has been no access to Sarabjit Singh," an official of the Indian High Commission said. "The matter has been taken up with the Pakistani side and the foreign office has been requested to give us regular consular access to Sarabjit Singh," said the official. Two officials of the Indian High Commission were allowed to visit Sarabjit, who is in an intensive care unit in Lahore's Jinnah Hospital, only for a few minutes early on Saturday. Subsequently, the Pakistani side informed the Indians that the consular access granted on Friday was meant for only one visit, sources said. The Indian side then took up the issue with their Pakistani counterparts, saying that Indian officials should be allowed unhindered access to Sarabjit in view of his condition, the sources said. Talks were going on between the two sides on this issue. (With inputs from PTI, IANS)  via Top Stories - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHvoKgm_0EPhI-4ODhJsEahatVngw&url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/Pakistan/Sarabjit-Singh-s-chances-slim-say-doctors-family-pleads-for-his-life/Article1-1051596.aspx | |||
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