Japanese medics struggling to save the Gamovs' lives

Japanese medics are struggling to save Russian General Vitaly Gamov and his wife who have received severe burns in an apartment fire. In the early hours of May 21st, unidentified criminals threw three bottles of inflammable mixture into the general's apartment in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. His wife Larisa Gamova is being prepared for blood transfusion after which she will be transferred from Sapporo, a town in Japan's Hokkaido prefecture neighbouring Sakhalin, to a hospital in Tokyo. This means Mrs Gamova may soon undergo an operation. Vitaly Gamov cannot be operated on so far. The Gamovs were taken to Sapporo by plane. They are both suffering from extensive burns, their upper respiratory tracts being affected too.