Bably wants to walk again
Seven-year-old Bably Akhtar hasn't seen her father since her birth as her irresponsible father abandoned his family when the minor girl was not even born.
But her struggle seems like an unending process as the ill-fated minor girl has been suffering from a massive swollen leg for almost a year.
The condition worsened after her right leg started to swell enormously in January this year, which rendered her unable to walk from one place to another.
As a result, her mother Khatun Begum, who used to work as a domestic help, had to leave her job in order to help her move.
Bably is the youngest among four children of Saraf Mia of Chatia village in Kamalganj upazila.
Khatun said her elder son Jasim Miah, 20, day labourer, is the lone bread earner of the family.
She said earlier her elder daughter Lovely Begum, a school dropout, who works at a garment factory in the capital, used to send her money for their livelihood.
But since her marriage a year ago, Lovely stopped her financial support to her younger siblings, Khatun said.
“When Bably was only two-and-a-half-years-old, one day I suddenly noticed that my baby girl was walking at a slow pace but thought it might not be too serious,” Khatun said, adding that as her condition remained the same for another two to three days we took her to a local Kabiraj (herbal medicine practitioner) who advised us to take Bably to a doctor.
As per the Kabiraj's advice she took her daughter to a doctor at Kamalganj upazila headquarter where the doctor told her to take Bably to Sylhet for better treatment, she said.
Later, taking help from neighbours, she admitted Bably to Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital.
“After a month of treatment there, doctors at the hospital advised me to take my daughter to Madras in India,” Khatun said, adding that as she does not have financial ability her minor daughter has been passing her days at home without any treatment since then.
Dr Iqbal Hassan, resident medical officer at Moulvibazar 250-bed Hospital, said it may be a case of hypothesis elephantiasis and it can be treated at Dhaka Medical College or at Bangabandhu Medical College Hospital (PG Hospital).
Talking to The Daily Star, Khatun pleaded for support and hoped that, with people's support, her daughter might be able to walk again.
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