Minister for Health and Population Padam Giri has said that Nepali Congress lawmaker Chandra Bhandari was taken to Mumbai for further treatment as the doctors suspected that his trachea may have been burnt.
Minister Giri said lawmaker Bhandari had asked to be treated in Nepal itself when he went to see him at the hospital but he was taken to India as the doctors suspected that his trachea may have been affected and they felt he would receive better treatment in India.
Lawmaker Bhandari was flown to India on a chartered Shree Airlines flight on Thursday afternoon. He will receive treatment at the National Burns Center in Mumbai.
Lawmaker Bhandari and his 86-year-old mother Harikala Bhandari were seriously injured when a gas cylinder exploded at his rented apartment in Buddhanagar, Kathmandu, Wednesday night.
The two were being treated at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Burn Hospital at Kirtipur.
Medical Director Dr Nijina Tamrakar and Dr Kiran Nakarmi, who were involved in their treatment, issuing a joint statement had recommended taking them to health institution with better facilities outside the country pointing that appropriate treatment in Nepal did not look easy.
"There seems to be high probability that their tracheas may have been burnt due to hot air and smoke," the doctors had said.
Bhandari’s mother Harikala succumbed to burn injuries while undergoing treatment at the hospital on Thursday morning.
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.
Minister Giri said they had full confidence that lawmaker Bhandari would make a recovery, and added that the government was ready to do everything necessary on its part for his treatment.
