‘I just want to see my daughter’
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Twenty-six-year-old Sonia Akter has been unable to speak a full sentence due to having 23 percent burn injuries on her face, forehead and trachea.
However, her motherly instincts are still intact. She gathered all the strength left in her to ask the relatives to let her see the face of her four-year-old daughter.
Little does she know what awaits her on top of her already existing sufferings. Mariam Akter, Sonia's four-year-old, succumbed to burn injuries on Tuesday.
Six members of Sonia's family were burnt in a fire supposed to have originated from a gas leak in Dhaka's Keraniganj upazila on Tuesday morning.
The victims were rushed to Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, where Mariam, a piece of Sonia's heart, breathed her last around 1:30pm, hours after she was admitted to the hospital.
Sonia has been frequently asking her husband and other relatives about her daughter since yesterday morning. She is in a state of constant restlessness thinking about her daughter's condition.
Mariam, who died with 60 percent burns on her body, was buried after Esha prayer on August 30.
However, Sonia's relatives are yet to inform her of her daughter's death, fearing that the unbearable shock might worsen her condition even further.
"Sonia's condition is already critical. We cannot inform her of Mariam's death at this moment," Sonia's husband and Mariam's father Osman Gani told this correspondent.
"We are scared to inform her of Mariam's death. We fear she might not be able to endure the pain," said Zubaer Hossain, Mariam's uncle.
"Mariam's elder brother Imran is still in shock. Mariam was his only sibling and playmate," he added.
Sonia's sister said she met her several times after the incident.
"She keeps asking about Mariam's condition and when she will have her surgery. Sonia will die if she hears about her daughter now," she said while trying to hold back her tears.
This correspondent visited Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery yesterday. The atmosphere on the seventh floor of the institute was heavy with gloom as Sonia's family members mourned the death of the youngest member of their family, while also in a fix about how to inform Sonia of her daughter's passing in her current condition and worried about the other injured family members.
Mariam's father Osman repeatedly broke down in tears remembering her daughter, while the other members of the family tried their best to console a mourning father.
However, it was not an easy ordeal for them as well. They too, burst into tears frequently while reminiscing the memories of the youngest of the family and thinking about her untimely death.
Mariam's uncle Zubayer broke down while telling this correspondent about his beloved niece. "Gone too soon," was what they all kept saying while talking about Mariam.
Grief and misfortune combined drove all the members of the family to a state of perpetual despair.
The others injured in the accident include Mariam's 60-year-old maternal grandmother, her cousins Shahadat Hossain (20) and Yasin (12) and another relative Panna Begum (50).
All the injured are currently in critical condition, with burn injuries ranging from 23 to 52 percent. All are currently under treatment at Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery.
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