Nesar heals with his heart

Saiful Islam tends to helpless patients at Chittagong Medical College Hospital. Photo: Jewel Shil
Saiful Islam tends to helpless patients at Chittagong Medical College Hospital. Photo: Jewel Shil


Saiful Islam works for a private firm, but spends his spare time at Chittagong Medical College Hospital. There this young man tends to patients who have no one to care for them. He visits them, comforts them, helps them in any way possible, and is only satisfied once he can send them home cured and healthy. Over the last 10 years he has looked after about 200 such destitute patients.

Lying semi-conscious in a hospital bed, Vladimir Kolotov could see a faint light glimmering at the end of a tunnel. He rushed forward as he saw the twin brother Adilov coming towards him, arms outstretched. He sank back into unconsciousness, a smile on his face.
When he regained consciousness, Vladimir looked around. Where was he, who was that kindly person? Vladimir was in Chittagong Medical College Hospital. He had come from Ukraine, a crew member of a cargo airline. They had been transporting shrimp fries from Cox’s Bazar when their aircraft had plunged into the Bay of Bengal. He was the only survivor among the four crew members. And the person he saw through his state of hazy consciousness was Saiful Islam.
Saiful is better known as Nesar. He is a diploma engineer and a known face at the Chittagong hospital. It is best to describe him as an embodiment of true humanity.

This 25-year-old young man works for a private firm. After office hours, he spends most of his time at this hospital, tending to helpless destitute patients, those who have no one. He nurses them back to health in any way he can, so far helping about 200 patients return home. He’s been doing this for the last 10 years. He offered solace to the lonely Vladimir Kolotov too, lying on a hospital bed in a foreign land, so many miles from home.
Saiful Islam explains why he chooses to devote so much time and effort to the ill and suffering: “I would study at the Feni Polytechnic Institute, next to the Feni hospital. I would see so many helpless patients there, suffering, and would go to meet them, arrange blood for those who needed it and so on. Gradually I got more and more involved. But the actual turning point was in 2007 when my father died because we couldn’t afford the treatment he needed. I promised myself to use my meagre earnings for the ailing poor, especially those who had no one beside them. That’s how it all started.”
Now whenever Nesar hears about a helpless patient, he rushes to the hospital, buys medicines and looks after their needs. It brings tears of joy to his eyes when a patient recovers and returns to his or her family. Of course not every patient recovers and it breaks his heart when anyone passes away.
It takes money to help out these poor patients, but Nesar has no complaints, nor has his family. In fact his mother often cooks meals for the poor patients. They have no regrets, despite having to give up so much, never bothering to cater to their own fancies or whims.
Baranjit Barua is a patient who recovered and returned home with Nesar’s help. He had met with an accident in Chokoria and was admitted in an unconscious state to Chittagong Medical College Hospital as an unidentified person. As expected, Nesar came forward, bought medicines with his own money and looked after him until he fully recovered. Baranjit’s brother Swaranjit Barua says with tears of gratitude, “We would have lost our brother if it was not for Nesar. We will never be able to repay his kindness.”
Parveen of Nangalkot is equally grateful. Though her sister Ruma died at the hospital after meeting with an accident, Nesar had spared no pains in trying to save her.

Nesar 3
Nesar 3


Narayan Dhar, a physician and assistant registrar at Chittagong Medical College Hospital’s neurosurgery department, says, “This boy does the unimaginable for helpless, poor and unknown patients. Only a person with endless depths of love and kindness in his soul could render such selfless service.”
Nesar is different from anyone else. Rather than spending time in pursuits normal for any other young man of his age, he is drawn inexorably to the hospital to be by the side of the hapless patients, offering comfort and care to the suffering.
Nesar’s website is www.mdnasar.org