Police honour firemen, but doctors say boy is brain dead

POLICE yesterday honoured the two firemen who risked their lives to save two-year-old Joseph Pesiara who was critically injured in a fire in Nicosia last week.

Kypros Koulouma and George Flaouna were honoured for their act of bravery and congratulated for their self-sacrifice to save the child at a ceremony at the Nicosia Fire Department.

Justice Minister Kypros Chrysostomides added that he would support suggestions to promote the two firemen.

The two men, who suffered respiratory problems from the blaze and had to receive hospital treatment, said their only thoughts were for Joseph and wished him a speedy recovery.

Joseph has still not responded to treatment and is effectively brain dead, his doctors said.

The head of Makarios Hospital’s paediatric department Dr Andreas Hadjidemetriou said the toddler’s brain continued not to react although the rest of his organs had responded to treatment.

The youngster, who is receiving treatment in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, was asphyxiated for at least 15 minutes when he ingested smoke from the blaze that broke out in his Lakatamia district home last Wednesday while he slept.

The child is on ventilator to control his vital organs, while his family continue to hope for signs of life from his brain.

“You have to understand it is not easy for his parents to accept the situation, especially since it was caused by an accident,” he said.

Psychologists have been called in to give them support.

Hadjidemetriou said neurologists had been called in to examine Joseph and today they are expected to provide a better rounded picture of his condition.

“They will evaluate his condition to determine that it’s not something else so that we have a better idea,” Hadjidemetriou said.

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