Measles: Couple loses only child born after 11 years of marriage
After 11 years of marriage, Farzana Islam and her husband Helal Bhuiyan had finally become parents through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). Their only son, Fayaz Hasan Tajim, brought long-awaited joy into their lives — but that happiness lasted less than a year.
Tajim died on 22 April at the age of 8 months and 18 days after suffering from measles.
Farzana had named her Facebook account “Tajim er Ammu” in devotion to her son. Speaking emotionally, she described him as the centre of their hopes and dreams after a difficult journey to parenthood.
The child was born through the costly and complex IVF process, in which reproductive cells are fertilised outside the body and the embryo is then transferred to the mother’s womb. The couple had faced both financial burden and medical risk before finally welcoming their son.
Farzana said her son’s illness began in March with pneumonia and diarrhoea, which later developed into measles. Over the following weeks, the family moved between multiple hospitals in Dhaka and Narayanganj in search of treatment.
Sharing a post about another child who died of measles, Farzana Islam wrote that she cannot forget the look in her son Tajim’s eyes during his illness.
Farzana Islam shared a photograph of her son via Messenger. In a phone conversation with her on Thursday, she described the photo as “my baby’s last smiling picture”.
She said that, in addition to the costs of pneumonia treatment, more than Tk 400,000 was spent over 17 days on measles treatment across various hospitals.
Tajim was first admitted to the Pro-Active Medical College and Hospital in Narayanganj’s Signboard area on 18 March and was treated in the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and general ward before being discharged on 25 March. On the fourth day of returning home, his condition worsened again. He was being treated at home under the supervision of a physician.
From 5 April, the child was taken from one hospital to another. The child was first taken to Bangladesh Shishu Hospital & Institute. As there was no empty bed there, the couple took their child to Alok Hospital, a private hospital in Mirpur. There he was being treated at PICU and Ward.
Eventually, the child was referred to Universal Medical College Hospital. Finding no bed there, the parents took the child to Supermax Healthcare Ltd at Dhanmondi, Dhaka.
Farzana said that at Supermax Hospital, her son’s leg became swollen and hardened due to complications from a cannula. She also said that parents were not allowed to stay with the child in the PICU there.
She ended her post with a deeply emotional question, asking why children are being born in the country at all, and why mothers give birth to them.
As a result, on 18 April, they admitted the child again to Pro-Active Medical College Hospital. He later died there while undergoing treatment in the PICU.
After the death of their only child, Farzana Islam and Helal Bhuiyan were left devastated and disoriented.
Although they had medical records from various hospitals, they said they have lost the final discharge document related to Tajim’s treatment. Farzana explained that the document issued by the hospital, including the recorded cause of death, had been kept in the ambulance. However, when they got down from the ambulance carrying their child’s body, no one remembered the document, and it was left behind.
A mother’s grief shared online
Farzana has since been expressing her grief on social media, sharing photos and memories of her son. She noted that Tajim was due to receive his first measles vaccine dose on 1 May — but he died before that date. She posted the photo of her child’s vaccination card on Facebook.
Sharing a post about another child who died of measles, Farzana Islam wrote that she cannot forget the look in her son Tajim’s eyes during his illness.
She said that just by looking into his eyes, she could understand how much pain he was in, and as a mother, she had realised the extent of his suffering.
Her Facebook posts have also become a space to express grief and anger.
In one post, Farzana Islam wrote that innocent children have been dying for two months, yet there has been no discussion in Parliament and no one is taking responsibility or admitting failure.
She ended her post with a deeply emotional question, asking why children are being born in the country at all, and why mothers give birth to them.