Brahmanbaria accident shatters a family’s dreams

Her legs were bandaged from the knees to the ankles. She had a saline cannula on the hand. Wounds were visible on both feet. Her face bore multiple bruises. She was tired and in agony.   

A badly injured Sumi Akter, 21, was groaning on a bed on the second floor of the National Institute of Traumatology & Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NITOR). Her aunt Rehana was beside her.  

"I cannot remember anything about the night. I found myself lying on the ground when I woke up. Then I was carried to the hospital," she said, shutting her eyes as if she did not wish to recall the tragedy.

Sumi's mother Jaheda Khatun, grandmother Suraiya Khatun, younger brother Emon and sister Mim were in the same compartment during the train accident on Tuesday. The mother succumbed to her injuries. 

The grandmother and brother were undergoing treatment at NITOR while six-year-old Mim was admitted at the Kurmitola General Hospital with critical injuries.

Sumi's grandmother Suraiya Khatun had both of her legs broken in the train mishap. However, the septuagenarian was doing well and was talking to her relatives. 

She was asking about her recently-widowed daughter Jaheda. Neither Sumi nor her grandmother was told that Jaheda had passed away. 

Though Sumi's ancestral home is in Sreemangal, she lived with the family in Chattogram. Her father, Muslim Mia, used to work as a foreman at the Chittagong shipyard.  

Muslim Mia died in an accident at his workplace last Thursday. The four offspring, the mother and the grandmother were returning to the port city after burying him in Sreemangal.

Sumi's elder brother Rabiul Hasan Sumon could escape the deadly accident as he was in another compartment of the Chattogram-bound Udayan Express. Sumon rescued the family members soon after the accident. 

However, he could not save his mother Jaheda, whose head was severed when the two trains collided.                                  

Jaheda's brother Mohammad Omor told The Business Standard that they searched the wreckage for Jaheda. Later they identified the body, which had been located by locals. Local residents took it upon themselves to bury Jaheda in Brahmanbaria since her relatives were attending to the injured family members at hospitals in Dhaka. 

The deaths of the father and mother within a span of five days have left the future of the family in a state of uncertainty. The father was the lone breadwinner and the compensation  received following his death was their last resort.           

The family's misfortunes have not ceased. The money received in compensation and other documents were in a bag which went missing after the train accident. Meanwhile, the family has been struggling with debts as a middleman cheated the elder son Sumon by promising to send him abroad for work and not living up to his word.   

Omor, Sumi's maternal uncle, said he had decided to take his nieces to his home in Brahmanbaria.    

"This will hamper their studies. On the other hand, we do not know how long the treatment will take," Omor said. He is an expatriate and is scheduled to return the United Arab Emirates this month. 

"Who will look after them?" He was visibly tense with worry.

"The accident has shattered all our dreams and devastated the whole family. The children's future is uncertain as they do not have any breadwinner. I do not know what I will do," he added.

A total of nine people injured in the train accident are being treated at the National Institute of Traumatology & Orthopaedic Rehabilitation. Dr Moni Shankar, assistant registrar of the hospital, said each of them has multiple bones broken. Two of the injured are in critical condition.

"We have given primary treatment. Some of them may require major surgery later," added the doctor.                   

Dr Abul Kalam Azad, Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services, visited the injured at NITOR and said they will get free treatment.