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Heading for uncertainty

Many arson victims leave hospital only to see hard times ahead

Staff Correspondent
In his over three-decade career, trucker Piar Ahmed never faced any accident. Nor had he ever fallen victim to vandalism as he always avoided driving through political flashpoints.
Yet all his caution failed to save him from being severely burnt as his parked lorry came under a firebomb attack in Comilla early last month. He was released yesterday after a month's treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
"I need to take the wheels as soon as possible," the 55-year-old trucker said.
He wants to resume his driving more for his financial needs than for the love of his profession.
Piar had taken a loan of Tk 2 lakh to send his son abroad last year. But his son returned empty-handed as fortune did not smile on him. He's still paying off the loan in instalments.
Doctors, however, fear that Piar will not be able to drive anytime soon.
Blisters in his left hand are yet to be cured and he needs to
get his hand checked again in two weeks, said Partha Sankar Paul, resident surgeon at the DMCH burn unit.
Moreover, it is unlikely that the trauma from the gruesome arson will allow him to drive in quite a while, said the physician.
However, the wish to get back to work remains unfulfilled not only for Piar, but also for a dozen other burn victims who are all earning members in their families. They took short- or long-term treatment at DMCH.
As many as 125 arson victims have taken treatment at the DMCH burn unit since the BNP-led 20-party's blockade began on January 6. The hospital authority has so far released 59 of them.
Fifty seven burn patients were still admitted to the hospital as ofyesterday.
Another victim Salahuddin, 44, who received eight percent burns in the Jatrabari arson attack, took treatment for nine days at DMCH.
A plastic factory worker in Demra, he still feels anxious to take a bus ride, he told this correspondent yesterday.
But he too needs to get back to work sooner rather than later and earn
money for his six-member family, he added.
Authority restricts entry to burn unit
After a couple of untoward incidents, the DMCH authorities yesterday made a move to restrict entry of visitors and media persons to the bum unit.
From now on media persons will have to write down their names, designations and other required information in a register book before entering the unit, said Samanta Lal Sen, honorary adviser to the bum unit.
Taking advantage of the bum victims' sufferings, a shooting team on Thursday showed up at the unit and started filminga victim.
They did not bother to take the patient's permission. A woman from the team, apparently an actress, even posed beside the patient with glycerine applied to her eyes to show that his sufferings made her cry.
In another incident on Saturday, a photographer was seen to make an arson victim pose at the high dependencyunit (HDU).
Earlier, the bum unit had restricted visitors' entry to the unit, saying that presence of random people may cause infection to the patients.