Nepali Congress (NC) lawmaker Chandra Bhandari and his mother, who have been seriously injured when a gas cylinder exploded at his rented apartment in Buddhanagar, Kathmandu Wednesday night, will be taken to Mumbai for further treatment.
The two are being treated at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Burn Hospital at Kirtipur. Medical Director Dr Nijina Tamrakar and Dr Kiran Nakarmi issuing a joint statement have recommended to take them to a health institution with better facilities outside the country as appropriate treatment in Nepal does not look easy.
Around 30 percent of lawmaker Bhandari's body—mostly his face, hands and legs—has been burnt while around 70 percent of his mother's body has been affected, according to doctors involved in their treatment.
"There seems to be high probability that their tracheas may have been burnt due to hot air and smoke," the doctors have said.
The duo will be taken on a chartered Shree Airlines flight and treated at the National Burns Center, Mumbai as there can be delay in arrival of an air ambulance, according to Bhandari's secretariat.
Lawmaker Bhandari, however, has been insisting that he and his 86-year-old mother be treated in Nepal.
Health Minister Padam Giri reached the hospital in Kirtipur Thursday morning to take stock of Bhandari's health situation.
Similarly, NC General Secretaries Bishwa Prakash Sharma and Gagan Thapa, NC leaders Ram Chandra Paudel, NP Saud, and Pradip Paudel, and CPN-UML leader Pradeep Gyawali, who lost to Bhandari in the recent general elections, also reached the hospital.
The gas cylinder exploded when the Bhandaris were sleeping after dinner.
