Another black day for city

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Channankara tragedy reminds us of the fateful Thursday of February, when a van carrying small children from a nearby kindergarten plunged into the Parvathi Puthanar canal killing six children, all of them less than five years of age, and a caretaker. The lone survivor of the Karikkakom accident was Muhammed Irfan, who is still in coma and continues to battle for his life.  Irfan was shifted to Vellore Christian Medical College after the State Government decided to bear the expenses of expert treatment. The six-year-old child was rushed to KIMS Hospital, where he was in a coma stage for almost two months. The Cabinet had decided to shoulder the expenses of the treatment after the victim’s family made an appeal to the Chief Minister. According to doctors, the boy had met with anoxic brain damage, a condition resulting from obstruction of flow of oxygen to the brain. They said that the extremely polluted water from the canal that entered the lungs had led to serious pneumonia and lung infection, thus reducing transfer of oxygen. This, in turn, cut off oxygen supply to the  brain. Dr Vijayaraghavan, who oversaw the treatment of Irfan, told Express that the damage sustained by the brain was irreparable, but after availing expert treatment, it is likely that 20 per cent of the brain which has not suffered much damage can be kept functional.