Prof Rashid passes away

Country's pioneer neurosurgeon Prof Rashiduddin Ahmad breathed his last at a city hospital at 8:00pm yesterday.

The 79-year-old had been in coma since he suffered a massive stroke on February 9. He was undergoing treatment at Metropolitan Medical Centre, his son-in-law Alasdair Macdonald told The Daily Star.

The physician left behind his wife Dr Quamrun Nahar, daughter Rashida Ahmad, a teacher at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, and son Rezan Ahmad, a psychotherapist in Bristol, England.

The first namaz-e-janaja of Prof Rashiduddin will be held today at his former workplace, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), at 10:00am.

From there, his body will be taken to his village home in Belabo of Narsingdi where he will be buried after Zohr prayers following another namaz-e-janaja, said Alasdair.  

Rashiduddin was born in Cox's Bazar on January 3, 1939. After completing MBBS in Dhaka, he went to the UK for further studies.

Returning to the country in 1970, he started the first ever neurosurgical services of the then East Pakistan at the Institute of Postgraduate Medical Research, present day BSMMU. 

Widely known as Prof Rashid, he became the founder president of Bangladesh Society of Neurosurgeons in 1998 and one of the pioneers in establishing the Institute of Neurosciences in the city's Agargaon.