Fear of becoming crippled for the rest of their lives continues to haunt the minds of those unfortunate people who were severely injured after a building in Tejgaon suddenly collapsed on February 25. Most of them are still receiving treatment at different city hospitals. They are worried not only about a bleak and uncertain future, but also how to survive the present time.

Dr AFM Momtazul Haque, assistant registrar of Neurosurgery Unit-1 of DMCH, said: "Since Ali is suffering from spinal cord injury at cervical region, full recovery is not possible. He needs long-term treatment."

The financial support Ali's family has been receiving from different sources, however, is anything but adequate to run the long-term treatment, said Ali's distraught wife Joynabunnesa.

A number of expensive tests had to be done and about Tk 16,000 has already been spent. "The building owner has given only Tk 4,000, I had to borrow the rest from my relatives," Joynabunnesa said. "We need more money, but I do not know where I will get it from," she said despairingly.

The other injured victims lying on hospital beds had the same worry. Abdus Samad, 32, a rickshawpuller, was passing by the doomed building when it collapsed and a heap of bricks fell on him. His left leg broke and his hands and head got bruised. "I am the only earning member of my family. If I cannot work, who will feed my two young sons?" asks Samad.

And now with the added worry about the future, Samad's family is in no better situation. "I do not know how I will recover from the injury and manage my family," says Samad. "My wife lives in the village and cannot come to look after me here as she has to raise my two little children. My 70-year-old mother is looking after me who herself needs nursing."

Tofazzal Hossain, 50, lost his left leg in the accident and is very much frustrated. "How will I continue treatment and manage my family simultaneously," asks Tofazzal, thinking he has himself become a burden for his poor and aged mother.

Dr Kazi Eusuf, assistant registrar of Casualty and Surgery Department of DMCH, said, "As the thigh bone of his left leg got severely fractured, we have no other option but to amputate the leg."

Shafiqul Islam, a worker of the nearby Basic Garments who was passing by the building at the time of collapse, got hurt in his left leg and head. He is now spending a traumatic time at National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (Pongu Hospital).

He does not know how long it will take him to recover; he does not even know if he would be able to lead a normal life again.

The authority of the garment company he works for is bearing the treatment costs but no one from the collapsed building came to him with any kind of help, he alleged.