KUALA LUMPUR: The sole survivor of the tragic carbon monoxide poisoning incident is showing some improvement but she is 'still not out of the woods'.
A family friend of Nor Aqilah Mohd Safwan, known as Halijah, 25, said the girl's parents were on their way to Kuala Lumpur from Sungai Petani, after sorting out the burial ceremony and other formalities of Nor Aqilah's twin.
She said the twins and their two course mates had just finished their final year at a private college here and were supposed to go on a pre-graduation holiday, before heading back to their hometown.
"They were supposed to spend Malaysia Day in Penang and return to their hometowns. It is unfortunate that this had to happen," she said when met at the Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin Armed Forces Hospital here this afternoon.
Halijah said she too has been unable to visit Nor Aqilah, who is currently kept in a Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HOT) chamber to induce direct oxygen to her cells through her respiratory system.
"No one is allowed inside but one of the doctors I spoke to this morning told me she was doing better today.
"He said although she has started to show signs of recovery, she still needed to be kept in an induced coma in the HOT chamber for another day or two," she said.
Halijah said she had conveyed the updates about Nor Aqilah's condition to the family and was waiting for them to arrive.
In the Wednesday night's carbon monoxide poisoning incident, three of Nor Aqilah's course mates including her twin sister Nor Adilah succumbed to gas poisoning believed to have emanated from the leaked exhaust pipe of a Honda Odyssey they were traveling in.
The four young women, Sharifah Fariesha Syed Fathi, Ayuni Shazwanie Shabri and Nor Adilah, all 21-years-old, were returning from a holiday trip to Pulau Jerejak in Penang, when one of them fell ill and decided to rest at a petrol station in Sama Gagah, Seberang Jaya, in the northern direction of the North South Expressway.
The girls were found lying unconscious inside the car with the engine still running at about 1am. The CCTV recording at the scene showed the car pulled over at the location at around 8.30pm.
It was reported that Sharifah Fariesha died at the scene while Ayuni Shazwanie died en route to the Seberang Jaya Hospital and Nor Adilah died while receiving treatment at the Lumut Armed Forces Hospital in Perak on Friday afternoon.