Mother with COVID-19 symptoms ‘abandoned’ in Sakhipur forest

A 50-year-old mother was left in a forest by her children as they suspected she was a coronavirus patient.

They told her to spend the night in the forest, telling her they would take her back the next day.

They abandoned their mother in the Sakhipur forest in Tangail on Monday night.

Later the upazila administration rescued her from the forest at 1:30am Tuesday and sent her to Dhaka.

Upazila’s Gazaria union ward No. 2 member Abul Kalam Azad said, “Locals informed me at 8pm on Monday after hearing the woman crying in the forest. Later the local chairman along with others went to the woman who described how her children left her in the forest.”

Abul Kalam Azad said upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) was apprised of the matter at around 12am. The woman was rescued at 1:30am and sent by an ambulance to Kuwait Maitree Hospital in Dhaka.

He also said the hospital authorities refused to admit the victim and she was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Tuesday morning and kept in an isolation ward there.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, Sakhipur upazila health complex resident physician Shahinoor Alam said the woman has been suffering from fever, cough and sore throat.

He said samples will be collected from her and tested today (Tuesday).

UNO Asmaul Husna Liza said, “The woman’s son, two daughters and sons-in-law left her in the forest and returned to their village. How could they be so inhuman? Jackals and dogs could have attacked her if the villagers didn’t hear her crying.”

Upazila health complex medical officer Masud Rana said the woman is a resident of Nalitabari upazila of Sherpur.

A son, two daughters and sons-in-law worked in a garment factory in Salna of Gazipur. All of them live in a rented house in Salna.

The victim would cook food for them.

When the woman caught fever and a cold a few days ago, the neighbours drove them away.

The children left their mother in the Sakhipur forest while they were going in a pickup to Nalitabari, Sherpur.