17-yr-old who suffered acid attack in Shopian prepares for 5th surgery, with poor father short of money

17-yr-old who suffered acid attack in Shopian prepares for 5th surgery, with poor father short of money

Shopian: As the gruesome acid attack on a young girl at Hawal Srinagar has again shocked Kashmir, the 17-year-old girl in Shopian who was similarly attacked last year is battling to regain her face and skin, while her father has not the money to meet expenses on medicines and surgeries.
This girl from Kral-Chak Shopian is scheduled to undergo her fifth surgery on Monday. Her father is struggling to arrange the money for the surgery even as doctors have advised that three more surgeries would be needed, costing Rs 20 lakh at a private hospital in Srinagar.
This girl, a Class 8 pass-out, was attacked by a person near her home at Kral-Chak village in October last year. The attacker was later arrested by police.
“My daughter is struggling for recovery. Though the wounds are healing, doctors told me that it will take more than a year-and-a-half and three more surgeries for satisfactory recovery,” said Shamim Ahmad Kumar, her father.
Kumar said that as the injuries were grievous, he was forced to get a rented accommodation at Srinagar so that he could get regular check-up done from doctors for his lone daughter.
“I have a minor son and a daughter and I am the lone breadwinner for my family. I work at a government school in my native village where I am being paid Rs 400 a month since 1995,” he said, adding that it is impossible to get his daughter treated with such meagre money.
“A month ago, we circulated a public appeal for donations and people helped us a lot, but some time later the money dried up, and now we are facing lack of cash for buying medicines,” he said.
“At the beginning my daughter was admitted at SMHS hospital Srinagar but when the first surgery there failed, I brought her to a private hospital where her wounds are recovering,” Kumar said.
“I need more money, much more, as it costs lakhs for plastic surgery and medicine,” he said.
Doctor Mushtaq Ahmad, a plastic surgeon at the private hospital where the acid victim is being treated, said that there were grievous injuries on the girl and most emergency surgeries had been carried out on her.
“Now we are doing plastic and cosmetic surgeries to recover the look which is defaced by the acid. Both her eyes were seriously damaged and she was not able to close her eyes. Now she is able to close one eye. Similarly, we have done grafting on arms which also have recovered and it will take at least three to four years to conclude the cosmetic part,” he said.
When asked about the intensity of injuries/burns, he said that there were grievous burn injuries on eyes, face, nose, arms and neck. “I don’t know the financial condition of the family but wounds like these cost a lot of money. It may cost them more than Rs 15 lakh on surgeries and medicines,” he said.

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