Old man of flood-hit Badin sleeps in the shadow of death

Eighty five-year-old Muhammad Aachar awaits the cold embrace of death as his family abandoned him in the flood-hit Badin district in a condition that medical experts are not too hopeful about.
Aachar had left the Angaro village with his family when torrential rains inundated hundreds of villages in the district.
While his family moved to a safer area, Aachar was left behind in a village where he has been on a diet of unhygienic food and polluted water.
A team of volunteers recently found him with serious gastrointestinal complications in a remote area of Badin.
He was unconscious when a medical team arrived on the scene to provide him first aid with the resources available to them.
After administering him medical assistance, the team managed to convince the locals to shift Aachar to Civil Hospital Badin, which is located some 25 kilometres away from the village.
“He’s in a serious condition and I don’t know how he’ll be able to survive. It seems that he’s waiting for death and there’s no relief for him. I’m afraid whether or not his heirs will receive his body if he were to die,” said Murad Khatiyan, who was heading the team of volunteers.
When Aachar was found, dozens of flies were swarming his body and continued to do so while he was being treated, but no one volunteered cleaning him up or changing his clothes.
On the other hand, six people were observed having lunch a mere 20 feet away from the seriously ill Aachar, whereas some women were fetching water from a nearby pond, unaware of the threat of falling ill from the polluted water.
Though Dr Hotchand and his medical team provided first aid to Aachar, they were unsure how he would be able to survive without proper medical attention.
While some medical camps have been set up in several flood-affected areas with the support of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), hundreds of patients are being treated there without proper care because the basic health units are still inundated and the government has not taken any step in this regard.
It is feared that if the situation is not brought under control by taking proper prevention measures and providing efficient medical treatment, various diseases could spread in the area.
Dr Khalida Sikandar Mandhro – senior consultant physician and Pakistan People’s Party Women’s Wing Badin President – has written to Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, highlighting the fact that substandard drugs are being supplied to the flood-hit population that is already in a grave health emergency.
A volunteer said the flood survivors are being deceived by administering them substandard medicine, which could also raise the death toll.
“I don’t know how many people like Uncle Aachar are in dire need of proper treatment. How will they survive if the NGOs return to their offices?” he added.
“Our people have been deprived of basic needs after heavy rains, but scarcity of food, potable water and medical assistance will ruin us mentally and physically,” he feared.