The Hindu : National : He was a truly real-life hero

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 14, 2006

National

National

He was a truly real-life hero

Devesh K. Pandey

Javed sustained severe burns while saving children at Meerut

— Photo: PTI

AGONY: Family members of Meerut fire victim Javed, who died at the Safdarjang Hospital, in New Delhi on Thursday.

NEW DELHI : After battling for life for three long days, 19-year-old Javed — the real-life hero who sustained severe burns while saving children trapped in the "Brands India" consumer fair inferno in Meerut earlier this week — died at the Safdarjung Hospital here on Thursday. His angry friends vandalised the hospital's Intensive Care Unit after they learnt of his death in the morning.

Javed, who was earlier admitted to Meerut's Sushila Jaswantrai Hospital with nearly 80 per cent burns, was shifted to Delhi on Wednesday night after his father Mizaz asked the doctors to allow him to take his son to the Safdarjung Hospital.

Medical negligence alleged

Mizaz and his wife alleged that when they went to check on him around 6 a.m. on Thursday, Javed's oxygen mask had been removed. One of his friends alleged that he had died of medical negligence.

Angry over alleged "indifference" on the part of the hospital authorities, Javed's friends barged into the Intensive Care Unit around 11 a.m. and broke some windowpanes. In the melee, nearly four of them sustained injuries. Fearing that the situation might go out of control, the hospital officials called up the police.

The protest went on for about two hours, amid rumours that the police had detained some of Javed's friends.

After the police intervened, Javed's relatives and friends apologised for their behaviour, following which the hospital management decided not to lodge any complaint against them. After post-mortem, his body was handed over to them around 3-30 p.m. the body was taken to his ancestral place in Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh for burial.

A resident of Mandawali in East Delhi, Javed had taken up a job in a health-goods stall at the "Brands India" fair. When the fire broke out , he risked his life to save at least six children. His friend Arif, who also worked with him in the stall, recalled that while he somehow escaped from the burning pandals, Javed chose to stay back and help other victims.

At the instance of the parents of the children he had saved, doctors at the Sushila Jaswantrai Hospital had urged Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav to recommend his name for a bravery award.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail