Dubai: On August 24 last year (2016), a deadly cylinder blast ripped through the kitchen of Mariam Lokhandwala’s apartment in Al Khail Gate, grievously injuring her and her mother Shirin Gandhi, while miraculously sparing her three-and-a-half-month-old baby, Zahra, who was sleeping in the bedroom. Mariam’s mother, who sustained 70 per cent third-degree burns, succumbed to her injuries, while Mariam suffered second and third-degree burns.
Soon after being discharged from the hospital in November, Mariam, 31, moved to Mumbai, India, with her baby Zahra and her in-laws for further treatment. In an exclusive telephone conversation with Gulf News, she talks of her ordeal and how she feels about having survived this trauma.
Recounting the fateful morning of August 24, Mariam, who worked in Dubai-based advertising agency, said: “I was sleeping late. It was three-and-a-half months after baby Zahra’s delivery and I had just returned from Mumbai. My mother, who had accompanied me to Dubai to help with Zahra’s care, wanted to have a cup of tea. So, around 11am, I got up and headed to the kitchen.”
She tried to push open the kitchen door, which she would usually shut at night to keep out the noise of the washing machine, but it wouldn’t open easily. “I had to apply force [to push it open],” she recalled.
As soon as she pushed the door open, a powerful blast shook the house. “There was a huge noise and I was instantly numbed. I felt no pain at all. My mother was right behind me.”
The blast was so powerful, it ripped open her apartment’s front door and blew away some walls.
As she lay stunned into numbness on the floor, she saw two men, her neighbours, rush in to help. Though she does not remember saying, ‘I am burnt, I am burnt,’ her neighbours later told her that she was crying out for help. She asked them to also help her mother, gave them her husband’s number, and told them her baby was in the other room.
“I have no memory of pain. I only remember my T-shirt being completely burnt and my neighbour offering me his shirt but I could not remove my clothes, so he covered my mother and me with blankets. One of the men who ran into the baby’s room told me that he was shocked to see the bed on which little Zahra lay hanging precariously out of a gaping hole that was once a window. He rescued my baby who, miraculously, was unhurt and still sleeping,” said Mariam.
By then the Civil Defence and the ambulance had arrived and lady officers helped her mother and her on to stretchers and into the waiting ambulance.
Both were rushed to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Rashid Hospital. Her mother breathed her last a day later, on Thursday, August 25.
Mariam was placed in induced coma for nearly 15 days at the ICU.
“I had no idea to what extent I was burnt as I was on ventilator and induced sleep. My husband tells me that I would get up screaming ‘I am burning, I am burning’, but I did not feel any sensation,” she says.
She had sustained 50 per cent burns. Her arms and trunk had third-degree burns while her legs had second-degree burns. It was pure luck that her face had first-degree burns only.
For many nights after the incident, Mariam says she suffered from nightmares in which she was running on the road screaming for help while her body was on fire.
She was in the ICU for 30 days during which time she received three skin grafts, intensive physiotherapy, psychiatric treatment and psychological counselling. She was discharged in November, over three months after the accident.
Overwhelmed by compassion
“I have only words of gratitude for the staff of Rashid Hospital,” Mariam said. “The head of Burns Ward, Dr Marwan Al Zarouni, was incredible in his treatment and very humane. The male head nurse, Mohammad, was so kind. Each and every member of the burns ward was like my own family. They always had words of kindness and hope for me and never let me feel depressed. Had I not had such intensive physiotherapy and care, I would not have been able to walk today,” said Mariam, whose wounds have healed but she has to wear pressure garments for the scars to heal and lighten and promote better blood circulation in her body.
She has immense gratitude too for her neighbours who rushed to her help as well as for the efficiency and gentleness with which the Civil Defence and Dubai Ambulance personnel treated her. The Dawoodi Bohra Community, to which she belongs, also immediately rose to the occasion, she said, “making sure they could secure a bed for my mother and me in the ICU and helped tremendously with the community network. Everyone rallied around my family and me. I am touched”, said Mariam.
But she is distressed by the attitude of the Indian mission representatives in Dubai. “No one from the Indian Embassy or Consulate came to visit me at the hospital or contact my family,” she said.
After being discharged, Mariam returned home and was nursed by her husband, Hussain. “[He] has been my pillar of strength. My parents-in-law have been extremely kind and caring. They moved to Mumbai along with me and Zahra to make sure I received the best treatment here,” said Mariam, who now is under care at a Mumbai hospital and has to undergo daily massage to stretch her scars, while her extended family looks after nine-month-old Zahra. Her husband, who works for an event management company, continues to provide financial support from Dubai.
“It will take around Dh50,000 for my treatment which will continue for two years. If I opt for cosmetic and laser surgery to clear my scars, that would mean additional expense,” she said.
For now, Mariam said she is taking life “one day at a time. Initially, I was afraid of fire and of stepping into the kitchen, but I am getting over that”.
