Bus runs over intern physician in Dhaka

The police officials talk to Fatema at the hospital on Thursday noon.Tanvir Ahammed

A speeding bus has run over an intern physician – Fatema Kashem alias Wafa, 25 – in the capital’s Farmgate area, leaving her injured critically.

The incident took place around 9:00am on Thursday when she, an intern of MH Samorita Hospital and Medical College, left home for the campus and was waiting for a rickshaw on the road adjacent to Al Raji Hospital in the Farmgate area.

An Alike Transport bus, all of a sudden, hit her and ran over her right thigh as she fell down, Fatema said, lying down on a trolly at the emergency ward of National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NITOR) in Dhaka on Thursday noon.

She has been receiving treatment there, with two legs wrapped with bandages. Blood was being transfused into her body from a blood bag hanging on the trolly stand, in addition to a nasal cannula for breathing support.

Sonjoy Kumar Roy, an orthopaedic surgeon of the hospital, said she is in a critical condition and will take a long time to recover. Her hip bone broke into four pieces. Also, both the legs sustained bruises while the right femur broke down.

In conversation with Prothom Alo, Fatema said she began the internship after completing her MBBS five months ago. Now the accident has put her life in jeopardy.

“Shall I ever be able to complete the internship!,” she wailed, but stood firm to demand exemplary punishment to the bus driver.

On information, Rubaiyat Jaman, additional deputy commissioner of Tejgaon division police, went to the hospital to visit Fatema. He was accompanied by Tejgaon police station officer in-charge (OC) Apurbo Hasan.

They requested Abul Kashem, father of Fatema and a medical technologist of Central Hospital, to file a case over the accident, but he refused. Her mother Jebunnahar also backed the stance, saying that a lawsuit would not make up for the losses that Fatema suffered. However, the father filed a case with Tejgaon police station under the road transport act in the afternoon.

OC Apurbo Hasan confirmed the lawsuit and said the bus and its driver are now in their custody.