Quack puts Sumon's life at risk

Four-year-old Sumon Hossain is groaning in pain at Domar Upazila Health Complex in the district as treatment by a village quack led to a deadly gangrene in his injured leg.

Sumon is the only son of small cow milk trader Delwar Hossain, 32, and Sheuli Begum, 25, of Paitkapara village in Jaldhaka upazila.

“One month ago, I with my son was going to nearby Kherkati Bazar on a bicycle. He was sitting on the carrier behind me. On the way, his right leg accidentally got into the spikes of the back wheel of the running cycle and it caused a deep and long injury with profuse bleeding,” said Delwar Hossain.

As Delwar and his wife were taking their child to nearby Domar Upazila Health Complex, village doctor Khorshed Alam Dulal intercepted them near Kherkati Bazar and convinced them, saying that he could cure their son as he had successfully treated a number of such patients.

“Before starting treatment, he reached a verbal agreement with us to take Tk 4,000 as fee and gave the child 13 stitches on the injured leg with a long used needle without sterilising it. He told us to buy some tablets from local medicine shop and took Tk 1,500 as first instalment of the fee, said Delwar.

“After passing of two weeks, we noticed that the flesh around the injury spot started decomposing. There was bad odour with pus and blood coming out. The boy cried in pain but the quack tried to convince us to continue treatment with him,” said Sheuli Begum.

“Finding no way, we took our seriously ailing son to Domar Upazila Health Complex two weeks ago. He was admitted there and doctors started his treatment under strict monitoring,” she said.

Raihan Bari, resident medical officer (RMO) of the health complex, said, “The boy didn't get proper treatment and hygienic care for long two weeks after getting injured and it caused severe infection leading to the symptom of gangrene.”

“We're treating the boy with high antibiotic alongside washing and dressing the wound. It will take a few weeks to cure him fully,” he added.

Contacted, Khorshed Alam Dulal refuted the allegation of his mistreatment and blamed the child's parents for 'negligence' in taking care of him as per his advice.