Health and Population Minister Padam Giri said Nepali Congress member Chandra Bhandari was taken to Mumbai for further treatment as doctors suspected his windpipe may have burned.
Minister Giri said lawmaker Bhandari had asked to be treated in Nepal when he went to see him in hospital, but was taken to India because doctors suspected his windpipe may have been affected and felt he would receive better treatment in India.
Lawmaker Bhandari was flown to India on a Shree Airlines chartered flight on Thursday afternoon. He will receive treatment at the National Burn Center in Mumbai.
Lawmaker Bhandari and his mother Harikala Bhandari, 86, were seriously injured when a gas cylinder exploded at their rented apartment in Buddhanagar, Kathmandu on Wednesday night.
The two were being treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Burn Hospital in Kirtipur.
Chief Medical Officer Dr. Nijina Tamrakar and Dr. Kiran Nakarmi, who were involved in their treatment, issued a joint statement and recommended taking them to a health institution with better facilities outside the country, noting that proper treatment in Nepal did not appear easy.
“There appears to be a high probability that their windpipes have been burned due to the hot air and smoke,” the doctors had said.
Bhandari’s mother, Harikala, succumbed to her burns while receiving treatment at the hospital on Thursday morning.
About 30 percent of lawmaker Bhandari’s body, mainly his face, hands and legs, has been burned while about 70 percent of his mother’s body has been affected, according to doctors involved in his treatment.
Minister Giri said that they were fully confident that Lawmaker Bhandari would recover, adding that the government was ready to do whatever is necessary on their part for his treatment.
