Lahore, April 30 (ANI): Doctors treating comatose Indian death row convict Sarbajit Singh at Lahore's government-run Jinnah Hospital, on Tuesday said his condition has deteriorated, but he has not been declared brain dead.
Allama Iqbal Medical College Principal Mahmood Shaukat, the head of a four-member medical board that is supervising Sarabjit's treatment, confirmed that his condition has deteriorated.
"He continues to be serious, but has not been declared brain dead," Dr. Shaukat said on Tuesday.
"In our latest investigation, there was no sign of improvement (in Sarabjits condition). Rather, his condition further deteriorated," he added.
Sarabjit is in a special intensive care unit of the state-run Jinnah Hospital. Dr. Shaukat said top neurosurgeons and physicians are providing Sarabjit the best treatment to save his life.
The doctors had changed some medications after the deterioration in his condition. A second CT scan on Sarabjit too did not reveal any signs of improvement, Dr.Shaukat said.
"The Glasgow Coma Scale of the patient is being monitored on a daily basis," he added.
Sarabjit's condition was measured as 5 on the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), which indicates the level of damage to a person's central nervous system.
The lowest possible GCS score is 3 while the highest is 15. The GCS assesses level of consciousness after a profound head injury and Sarabjit's reading indicated deep unconsciousness, making his treatment a major neurosurgical challenge for the medical board.
The medical bulletin came even as Sarabjit's sister Dalbir Kaur said she believed that Sarabjit Singh was being artificially kept alive by the doctors.
Speaking over phone from Lahore with an Indian daily on Tuesday, Dalbir Kaur said, "Even if Pakistani doctors declare my brother brain-dead, I wouldn't let them remove him from ventilators unless a team of doctors from India arrives and inspects his health."
She said that a team of Indian high commission in Lahore had gone to hospital to receive the medical report of her brother.
"I am not at all satisfied with the medical treatment given to my brother, there is no improvement in his condition ever since he has been admitted in hospital, I am sure he is being kept alive artificially," she said.
She said that the doctors were not giving her correct information and she was being kept in the dark. Making yet another emotional appeal to the Indian government, she said, "My government should send a team of medical specialists and its representatives who could take care of Sarabjit in Pakistan".
Dalbir said she was surprised to see the ink mark on Sarabjit's left thumb. "Why is there an ink mark on his thumb? I believe the Pakistan authorities must have obtained his thumb impression on some documents," she said.
Dalbir Kaur made her demand after Jinnah Hospital's Medical Superintendent Ijaz Nisar briefed her and Sarabjit's wife and two daughters on his health.
Kaur plans to return to India to seek advice on his treatment.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Punjab Government has issued show cause notices to seven officials of Kot Lakhpat Jail, including Superintendent Mohsin Rafiq and Additional Superintendents Ishtiaq Ahmed Gill and Sawar Sumera, for failing to protect Sarabjit.
Doctors treating Sarabjit had earlier said his chances of survival are "slim" as he had sustained injuries over a widespread area of his head.
Sarabjit, 49, sustained several injuries, including a skull fracture, when six prisoners attacked him in Kot Lakhpat Jail on Friday afternoon. He was hit on the head with bricks and his neck and torso cut with sharp weapons.
He was convicted of alleged involvement in a string of bomb attacks in Punjab province that killed 14 people in 1990.
His mercy petitions were rejected by the courts and former President Pervez Musharraf.
The outgoing Pakistan Peoples Party-led government put off Sarabjit's execution for an indefinite period in 2008.
Sarabjit's family says he is the victim of mistaken identity and had inadvertently strayed across the border in an inebriated state. (ANI)
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