Boy injured by chemical waste goes home

KUENSEL ONLINE, BHUTAN, SEPTEMBER 10, 2006
23 August 2006 : After more than six months in hospital and numerous skin grafting surgeries on both limbs knee-below, Tsheten Dorji was discharged from the national referral hospital in Thimphu yesterday.
The 11-year-old who suffered third degree burns from chemical waste dumped by Bhutan Carbide and Chemicals Limited in Pasakha, Phuentsholing, told Kuensel he was excited to go home and to school.
He limped dragging his two bandaged limbs with the help of crutches. “It hurts when I use force on the legs and I cannot properly bend my right leg,” he told Kuensel perched on a vacant stretcher at the corridor.
For the moment his worry is whether his school would take him in and put him in his promoted class. “I passed from class II,” he said. He suffered from the burns on February 11, a week before school started after winter vacation.
Dr. Tshewang Thinley said the boy was walking with difficulty. The limbs were stiff and few toes had been lost.
The boy’s mother told Kuensel the BCCL made a compensation of Nu. 16,000. “I am worried if he will be normal again and can attend school,” she said.

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