KHANEWAL - The pledges made by Prime Minister Gilani and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for free treatment of four bedridden members of a family in Khanewal are still unfulfilled.
“We have received a letter from the prime minister and also from the chief minister but nothing has so far been done practically for my children’s treatment,” said Maqsoodan, mother of these disabled persons and resident of Railway Colony. She also demanded financial aid and monthly stipend for their medication.
The International Day of Persons with Disabilities was observed in the world as well as in Pakistan but most of disables persons are totally ignored by government and civil society. Therefore, disappointed handicapped peoples start considering themselves a burden on the society and commit suicide.
The same story is of the family in Khanewal. The three sons and a sister a retired railway employee are looking for attention of government officials, political leaders or civil society members. Another son of the retired officer died a few months ago while the four members of the family are so week because of illness that they cannot leave even their beds. They got disabled gradually because of a serious muscular dystrophic syndrome. They have been examined by doctors in many hospitals of Pakistan.
Out of total seven, five kids of Pakistan Railways assistant traffic officer Sarwar Cheema got disabled at the age of 12 to 14 years. Now, they all are bedridden. It was told that they were alright at the time of birth and later they suffered from a chronic progressively debilitating muscular disease and became idle. The disabled kids include Tanveer Ahmed,33, Safdar Saeed,26, Zaheer Abbass,20, and Nazia Sarwar,17, while Ghulam Abbass and a Fauzia Sarwar are normal and enjoying married life.
They were medically checked up by doctors in Complex Hospital, Islamabad in 1994. Later, they were taken to Hakim Muhammad Saeed, and then to Jamshuroo District Hospital and other renowned hospitals of the country. It has been found that they are completely dependent and in miserable condition, even they cannot go to washroom themselves. Even food is served to them by their caregivers. They got education up to middle class and then could not get further education after the illness. They all live in a one-room house. Even then, they think that a day would come when all of them would get health.
According to Dr Saifur Rehman Saifi, a general physician, it is a hereditary muscular disease due to autosomal recessive gene affecting both sexes equally. It involves voluntary muscles without involvement of central nervous system. The involvement usually starts from lower limbs and abdomen and then gradually it ascends upwards to upper limbs and chest depending upon the type of myopathy, he added, saying that degree of severity could be gauged by electromyography and biopsy at the early stage of the disease.
Moreover, the disease could be lessened in severity and early start of rehabilitation process could decrease the misery. But unluckily and due to poor financial position, parents were unable to afford such expensive and latest techniques of treatment of their children. One of the disabled child has offered that if government can not do any thing for them, he will sell his kidneys, so that his other three brothers and sister could be treated properly and even to sacrifice his life to save their lives.
“We have received a letter from the prime minister and also from the chief minister but nothing has so far been done practically for my children’s treatment,” said Maqsoodan, mother of these disabled persons and resident of Railway Colony. She also demanded financial aid and monthly stipend for their medication.
The International Day of Persons with Disabilities was observed in the world as well as in Pakistan but most of disables persons are totally ignored by government and civil society. Therefore, disappointed handicapped peoples start considering themselves a burden on the society and commit suicide.
The same story is of the family in Khanewal. The three sons and a sister a retired railway employee are looking for attention of government officials, political leaders or civil society members. Another son of the retired officer died a few months ago while the four members of the family are so week because of illness that they cannot leave even their beds. They got disabled gradually because of a serious muscular dystrophic syndrome. They have been examined by doctors in many hospitals of Pakistan.
Out of total seven, five kids of Pakistan Railways assistant traffic officer Sarwar Cheema got disabled at the age of 12 to 14 years. Now, they all are bedridden. It was told that they were alright at the time of birth and later they suffered from a chronic progressively debilitating muscular disease and became idle. The disabled kids include Tanveer Ahmed,33, Safdar Saeed,26, Zaheer Abbass,20, and Nazia Sarwar,17, while Ghulam Abbass and a Fauzia Sarwar are normal and enjoying married life.
They were medically checked up by doctors in Complex Hospital, Islamabad in 1994. Later, they were taken to Hakim Muhammad Saeed, and then to Jamshuroo District Hospital and other renowned hospitals of the country. It has been found that they are completely dependent and in miserable condition, even they cannot go to washroom themselves. Even food is served to them by their caregivers. They got education up to middle class and then could not get further education after the illness. They all live in a one-room house. Even then, they think that a day would come when all of them would get health.
According to Dr Saifur Rehman Saifi, a general physician, it is a hereditary muscular disease due to autosomal recessive gene affecting both sexes equally. It involves voluntary muscles without involvement of central nervous system. The involvement usually starts from lower limbs and abdomen and then gradually it ascends upwards to upper limbs and chest depending upon the type of myopathy, he added, saying that degree of severity could be gauged by electromyography and biopsy at the early stage of the disease.
Moreover, the disease could be lessened in severity and early start of rehabilitation process could decrease the misery. But unluckily and due to poor financial position, parents were unable to afford such expensive and latest techniques of treatment of their children. One of the disabled child has offered that if government can not do any thing for them, he will sell his kidneys, so that his other three brothers and sister could be treated properly and even to sacrifice his life to save their lives.
