He saved the bird, but at great cost

Ten-year-old Liyon Roy, who put his own life at risk while trying to save a parrot chick, is passing his days in hospital bed amid lack of proper treatment.

Liyon, a Class VI student at Sarkarpara Government Primary School in Thakurgaon municipality, is suffering from neurological complications. He has been staying at Thakurgaon Sadar Hospital for nearly three months.      

Physicians said Liyon will fully recover if he gets proper treatment at a neurological specialist hospital as soon as possible.     

His mother Mukta Rani, a tailor, could not take her son to a neurological specialist hospital for want of money. 

Mukta feeds her son some liquid food when the boy has only a little consciousness.   

“I have been living in a rented house at Sarkarpara for eight years with my elder daughter Nupur and son Liyon,” said Mukta, a divorcee.

She said while Liyon was watching a mother parrot and her chicks in a nest at the top of a mango tree beside their house on May 18, one of the chicks fell to their courtyard.

Seeing the chick in such a condition, a sympathetic Liyon took the bird and climbed the tree to put the baby bird in its nest safely, she added.

“Suddenly my minor son slipped and fell to the ground while getting down from the tree and sustained severe head injuries,” she said, adding that Liyon was rushed to Thakurgaon Sadar Hospital from where he was shifted to Rangpur Medical College Hospital (RMCH) the same night.

RMCH doctors advised Mukta to take her son to either Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University or National Institute of Neuroscience and Hospital in the capital for better treatment.

But due to the financial constraint she could not take her son to Dhaka and admitted the ill-fated boy to Thakurgaon Sadar Hospital again, lamented the mother.  

“If I get financial support from any corner I can continue my son's treatment which would help him to recover fully,” Mukta said.