COMPLETE lawlessness has taken the country for several years due to the culture of impunity, political backup, administrative corruptibility, lax of accountability, political vengeance, inept administrators and alienation of political elite from the masses. While maimed Limon was being cleared from false cases filed by elite force RAB following media and rights groups outcry, a heart-wrenching incident was committed at Dhaka Medical College Hospital that flaunted the might of the hospital’s folk over a poor girl who gave birth to a baby day before murdered. People usually go to hospitals with ailments to be cured, and DMCH has a long reputation for providing low-cost treatment to poor people. And yet the government officials enjoy best of the facilities available in government hospitals.
A national daily reported that the ill-fated girl Asma along with her younger sister Sumi was caught by DMCH security personnel while they were sneaking away with her newborn on October 12 to avoid paying operation bills. While Asma was forced to stay back at the hospital, Sumi was charged with baby stealing. Asma died the next day. The DMCH authorities said Asma died of renal failure and anemia, among other medical conditions, caused her death, though, no post-mortem was done on the body. Surprisingly, the hospital authority took an unusual step to send the corpse to her resident at Tongi Boubazar by a microbus without even asking her family for the expenses or for the outstanding bills. Asma’s mother Taslima said police even warned them against crying as they forced them to board the vehicle carrying the body, smelling an unusual event.
Several marks of bruises, deep cuts, blisters, and unstitched cuts in Asma’s body were found while her body was being washed to get ready for burial by some local women. The cuts and blisters have led Asma’s family and neighbours to believe that she was tortured to death at the hospital. Several physicians, including a gynecologist, said the mother who was trying to run away a day after having a caesarean operation cannot die all of a sudden the next day. Asma was found biting her tongue, which, physician explained, usually happens to those strangled or subjected to a very painful death. Her wrists bore deep circular marks, as if they were cuffed for a very long time. A DMCH doctor said a blow by a blunt object or even punches may cause a fatal renal failure immediately. What actually happened to the poor young woman is an unexplained mystery-but it is equally obvious that it was caused by external shocks like torture or physical punishment.
Obviously, details of the injuries and the sudden death of an apparently healthy woman calls for a probe. The Director of DMCH even shoved a reporter of a local daily in the chest and pushed him towards the exit when asked about the death. The way Asma’s body was hastily discharged by the hospital authorities, too, raises questions about the unnatural death of the woman.
We are aware of that including persons in the government and many others feel no accountability to the people. We want to say that doctors cannot be inhuman and feel unaccountable about their humane obligation to the patients.
