A BABY boy who was flown to Scotland after surviving a catastrophic gas explosion that wiped out his family in Pakistan was recovering last night after surgeons carried out a successful operation to reconstruct his face.
Mohammad Sudais was moved to the high dependency unit at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Yorkhill, Glasgow, after a team led by consultant Stuart Watson performed the procedure on his eyes and mouth.
The infant, who was found whimpering underneath the remains of his plastic carry cot, was flown to Scotland a week ago by his uncle Mohammad Asif, who has lived in Glasgow for 15 years, following the intervention of the Scottish Government and a public appeal which has so far raised £15,000.
The baby, who has suffered 80% full skin loss to his face, lost his father, mother and 13-month-old brother in the weeks following the blast at his home in Peshawar, on December 16, which is believed to have been caused by a gas outage.
Robina Qureshi, director of the Positive Action for Housing, assisted Mr Asif with his campaign to get his four-month-old nephew, who he plans to adopt, flown to Scotland for treatment.
Ms Qureshi said last night she was "so relieved" after receiving news the operation - likely to be the first of many over several years - had been deemed a success.
She said: "Over 500 people have donated from all over Scotland and further afield, it's been overwhelming.
"Everyone had to ensure the child was going to be transferred safely and there were a lot of logistics involved in bringing him over from what is a very insecure place. The Scottish Government supported it and [Health Secretary] Alex Neil has to be thanked - he said 'yes, he can be treated in a Scottish hospital' and pulled out all the stops."
Mohammad survived a scare on Tuesday night when he stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated. Ms Qureshi said the baby would not have survived had he still been in Pakistan.
Money is still being raised and will be used to fund treatment for Mohammad as he gets older.
"You can see overwhelmingly that there's a baby who needs a lot of love," Ms Qureshi added. "He's adorable. This child is clearly a fighter and will one day do this country proud."
The baby has a six-month medical visa, but it is hoped a permanent visa will soon be granted by the UK Borders Agency. It is planned that once he is well enough to leave hospital, he will live with Mr Asif, a language consultant, his wife Naseema and their four children at their Carmyle home.
Though his face was badly burned, Mohammad's body is unmarked as he was wrapped in blankets when the explosion occurred.
To donate to the appeal, visit www.justgiving.com/muhammadsudaisburnstreatmentglasgow
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article