Burn Victim Shabazz Still Extremely Critical

Betty Shabazz remained in extremely critical condition Saturday at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, where she is recovering from burns suffered in a fire that the authorities say her 12-year-old grandson set.

A hospital spokeswoman said that Shabazz, the widow of Malcolm X, was not scheduled to undergo surgery Saturday. Since she entered the hospital last Sunday, Shabazz, 61, has undergone three operations to remove severely burned tissue and replace it with artificial skin. She suffered burns over most of her body in the fire in her apartment in Yonkers.

Doctors have removed more than half of Shabazz’s burned skin in the three operations.

Dr. Bruce Greenstein, the head of the hospital’s burn unit, said on Friday that Shabazz needed several days to recover between operations. He said that while she had tolerated the surgery well, it was too early to make a prognosis.