From Gyang Bere, Jos
A ten-year-old girl, Doosuur Isaac, who got gruesomely burnt while trying to save her younger brother from being consumed by raging fire, is passing through an excruciating pain at the moment.
Doosuur expressed no regrets passing through the pain just to keep her brother alive. Her joy, she said, was that her brother was not affected by the fire.
She currently needs urgent financial assistance to remain alive at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Plateau Specialist Hospital Jos where she was rushed.
She was said to have jumped into the burning fire to save her six-year-old younger brother, Terver Isaac who was about to be consumed by the fire.
The brave girl, who lived with her parents at Tudun Wada community in Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State, was playing with her brother when another girl quickly gathered papers and unused clothes and set fire to the bundle.
Her six-year-old brother, Terver Isaac was advancing towards the burning fire but Doosuur quickly intervened by jumping in between the fire in a bid to save her brother.
Sadly, the fire jumped on her clothes behind and started burning her, even without her knowledge. When she realised it, the little girl became confused and started running around, to nowhere in particular.
Doosuur ran persistently with the fire burning her clothes, but there was no one that came to her rescue. When the pain was too much, she got tired and fell down, crying and screaming for help.
She told the reporter that she kept screaming, “Jesus, I will not die; Jesus, I will not die.” Eventually, someone heard her passionate cries for help and rushed to the scene with water to put off the fire.
Unfortunately, she had sustained a lot of injuries all over her body, apart from her stomach where she fell on. She was rushed to a clinic from where she was later referred to the Plateau Specialist Hospital in Jos.
Since then, Doosuur, a daughter of Isaac Abaa, a former staff of Silver Bird Communication who was sacked during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been battling for her life. At an encounter, she narrated how the incident occurred to the reporter.
Her words: “I was carrying my three-month old sister to play around and when she started crying, I took her to my mother and my six-year-old brother decided to follow me.
“There was another girl in the compound who is about 12 years old. Suddenly, she came with matches and started burning some clothes in the compound and my little brother was playing around the fire. I decided to go there and take my brother away from the fire.
“Unfortunately, the fire caught my clothes from behind and I didn’t know, but the girl who started the fire was laughing at me. When the fire was obvious, I started crying and screaming but I was confused. I didn’t know where to go for help.
“I was shouting, ‘Jesus I will not die, Jesus I will not die.’ I got confused and instead of me to run to where my mother was, I was running to a different area.
“I kept running and got tired. Then at a point, I fell down crying and screaming that ‘Jesus, I will not die’ until one of my neighbours heard my voice. Then he came out and met me struggling with the fire. They look for water and poured it on me. They also requested eggs and they put it all over my body. Then they took me to the hospital.:
The father, Isaac Abaa, who lost his job with a prominent television station during the COVID-19 pandemic, said his daughter’s condition had been giving him nightmares.
He said his concern now was not about how to feed the family but how his daughter who is between life and death at the ICU will survive.
Isaac is soliciting financial assistance from kindhearted Nigerians so as to keep his daughter alive. He complained of the expensive drugs he is required to buy daily, adding that sometimes he had to call drug dealers in Lagos and Abuja to get the needed drugs.
Said he: “I am Isaac Abaa, father of four, I was working with a prominent media establishment (name withheld), but during the COVID-19 period last year, I lost my job. I was one among those who were downsized from the organisation and presently, I am still looking for what to do.
“My daughter got burnt on Tuesday January 5, this year about 3pm. I was not at home but I received a call from my wife, screaming and crying. When I found out what was happening, I was told that my daughter got burnt.
“I left where I was immediately and proceeded to the Plateau Specialist Hospital. I even arrived at the place before them. I waited for them at the gate and as they arrived, I saw my daughter all wrapped up. I thought she was dead.
“But when I opened the wrapper and called her name, she answered. I was more assured. We went to the casualty unit and the doctors started attending to her immediately. We were later directed to the ICU.”
When asked what was his major challenge was at the moment, he said: “You know being in the hospital itself is a challenge. The economic situation in the country now is another big challenge. There are challenges of getting the expected drugs to administer to her.
“There are some of the drugs that we can’t get them here in Jos. We have to call Abuja and Lagos to get them and they are very expensive. We were able to get some in Lagos and bring them to Jos but they have finished now, I don’t know what to do next.
“Another challenge is that my daughter cannot be treated until I offset the medical bill. Anytime a drug is needed, I will have to go and buy it before she can be attended to. In the case of burning, the drugs are very expensive and I am not working now, I need help.”
As the ten-year-old Doosuur continues to battle for her life at the Intensive Care Unit of Plateau Specialist Hospital, the parents are pleading with Nigerians to help her live.
Nigerians wishing to help the little girl may contact her father on his mobile line: 08067038679.
Individuals and groups wishing to assist the little girl financially may do so through her father. His account number at First Bank is 3034895459. And the father’s account name Isaac Abaa.