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Guys, a small request for aid for this man. To extend help one can contact Valley of Love at 04-267 0154; 050-309 0506 or e-mail thevalleyoflove@gmail.com

Also, if anyone has strong contacts who can really pressurize Sun Engineering & Contracting. really discouraging - why should workers put in their efforts sacrificing their lives for companies like this!

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Published: January 15, 2009, 08:40
Comatose man: No money to go home

By Faisal Masudi, Staff Reporter

A local aid group is raising funds for an Indian worker who has been in a coma at Rashid Hospital, Dubai, for two years.

Bhawar Lal, 50, fell from the second floor of an under-construction Dubai tower into a cement mixture in January 2007. The accident has left him completely paralysed.

"His permanent disability is 100 per cent. He needs continuous supportive care," Lal’s hospital records say.

But Lal has no family in the UAE, said volunteer group Valley of Love (VoL). The father-of-three is being looked after by the hospital staff.

Hospital pressure

"How long can this go on? There’s pressure on the hospital," said Pam Gouri, a VoL co-ordinator.

Lal’s employer, Sun Engineering & Contracting, has declined financial help, Gouri said, adding there are many similar cases of companies not paying medical bills. Sun Engineering & Contracting was not available for comment.

A VoL statement said: "No compensation has been paid as the case is still going on, resulting in wretched poverty for the family."

It will take around Dh10,000 just to fly Lal home, according to Gouri.

"Lal will need to be on a stretcher, accompanied by a doctor and nurse. Around Dh50,000 more is needed to support him and his family in India. We may have to build a special room and toilet, buy medical equipment, and hire a nurse," she said.

The funds, if raised, will be enough to cover Lal’s medical needs for one and a half years – the expected time frame for the compensation case, according to an advocate at Al Hosani Advocates & Legal Consultants, who is working with VoL.

Son takes charge

Gouri said donors can transfer funds to the bank account of Lal’s wife. Another VoL volunteer, C.P. Mathew, said he recently visited Lal’s family – an aged mother, wife, two daughters and a 16-year-old son – in Jaipur, India.

"Sanjay [Lal’s son] has been forced to become the man of the house. He gave up his schooling two years ago, when his father’s accident occurred, and now takes up odd farming and building jobs to support his family," Mathew told XPRESS.

Lal can only breathe through a tube put in his throat by doctors to keep him alive.

"He’s in a vegetative state, unaware there are people longing for him," said Joseph Bobby, a VoL volunteer.

How to donate

To extend help one can contact Valley of Love at 04-267 0154; 050-309 0506 or e-mail thevalleyoflove@gmail.com