An Awami League leader’s Facebook post alleging the death of a school teacher in Shakhipur area of Tangail due to the mismanagement of the health directorate has gone viral.
Earlier on Thursday evening, Dhrirendranath Das, 58, a senior assistant teacher of Sakhipur PM Pilot Model Government School and College, died outside the Tangail General Hospital. He was left there in an open place near a drain for three hours after a fire broke out at the 10-bed intensive care unit (ICU) of Tangail General Hospital around 3.00pm. Many of Dhirendranath’s students posted on Facebook alleging that their beloved teacher had died due to negligence.
It is learned that a high flow nasal cannula in the hospital’s ICU caught fire around 3.00pm on Thursday and the patients in the ICU rushed outside in panic. Dhirendranath Das only got a place near a drain outside the hospital.
There, both Dhirendranath and his relatives had to endure unfathomable distress amidst the rain and heat of the blazing sun. Eventually he died in the evening while his relatives were trying to shift him to Mirzapur Kumudini Hospital from there. Dhirendranath had died due to the negligence and mismanagement of the hospital.
Central Awami League’s information and research subcommittee member and former general secretary of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) Chhatra League, Ataul Mahmud posted a status on Facebook addressing the health minister over this incident, which went viral as soon as the post was made.
Ataul wrote in his Facebook post, “A fire broke out in a 10-bed ICU unit. The patients receiving treatment at the ICU were moved to the streets with their cylinders attached to them. And our beloved teacher of Shakhipur PM Pilot School, Dhirendranath sir fell victim to it. Honurable health minister, what else can I tell you? The nation is witnessing the flaws of the health directorate. What will our leader Sheikh Hasina do alone? In this way, we are tarnishing all the achievements of Sheikh Hasina one by one.”
He also demanded punishment for those responsible for the incident.
KBM Khalilur Rahman, principal of Shakhipur PM Pilot Model Government School and College, complained that Dhirendranath Das had been lying in an open place next to the sewer outside the hospital for several hours. No one took him inside even after the situation was brought under control. He died due to the negligence of the hospital authorities.