Young physician dies of dengue days after marriage
The couple had bought household essentials, including a refrigerator and furniture, together. They rented a small home in Khilgaon, next to the house of Anchal Roy’s parents.
They had planned to gradually arrange the home before moving to Barishal to start their life together afresh. But physician couple Biplob Chandra Das and Anchal Roy never got the chance to fulfil those plans.
Anchal contracted dengue about a year and a half after their marriage and was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of Square Hospital in the capital.
Physicians tried to save her, while her husband Biplob stayed by her side and did everything he could. But she could not be saved. Anchal died on 27 September.
Photos and videos from their wedding, pictures of trips to the seaside with her husband and memories of various achievements in her professional life still fill Anchal’s Facebook profile.
The woman in those photographs is no longer there. What remains are the home in Khilgaon, some household items they bought together and the plans they had made for their future.
Living in separate cities after marriage
Biplob and Anchal held their wedding ceremony in Dhaka on 18 April last year. Three days later, they held a post-wedding reception in Barishal. Both were physicians, and they remained busy with their jobs, responsibilities and plans for the future.
They did not live under the same roof regularly after their marriage. Because of their jobs, Anchal lived in Kasba, Brahmanbaria, while Biplob was in Jamalpur. Later, one lived in Dhaka while the other stayed in Barguna.
They would meet whenever they had leave or work in Dhaka. They used those brief periods to discuss their household plans — what to buy, where to live and when they could finally live together.
They rented a home in Khilgaon next to Anchal’s parents’ house. They also bought some essential household items, including a refrigerator and furniture. They planned to arrange the home gradually.
After Biplob was recommended for the health cadre in the 45th BCS, the couple made new plans. They hoped to secure a posting in Barishal, near Biplob’s home, and start their life together there. They also planned to have children after settling their household.
On 28 September, Prothom Alo spoke to Anchal’s husband Biplob by phone. He works as an acting training officer at the Barguna Betagi Regional Training Centre of the National Institute of Population Research and Training. He was recently recommended for the health cadre in the 45th BCS.
Biplob told Prothom Alo that dengue had not even given them enough time to settle their home.
The fever that began on 21 September
Anchal developed a fever on 21 September. Despite the fever, the couple went shopping for Puja that day. Later, they arranged for someone from a laboratory to come and conduct a test. Her platelet count was then 100,000, and she could still eat normally.
Even so, Biplob advised her to be admitted to hospital. Anchal did not agree. She said she would go to hospital if her condition deteriorated.
Her platelet count then began to fall rapidly. When it dropped to 25,000, the family admitted Anchal to hospital on the evening of 25 September. Biplob was in Barishal that day for work.
After her admission, Anchal’s condition deteriorated rapidly. She was moved to the high-dependency unit (HDU) and then the ICU, where she underwent several complex medical procedures.
Biplob said, “Anchal did not want to take any medicine outside the protocol. She was also a very bright physician herself. She was afraid that she would need a cannula if she was admitted to hospital. And that same Anchal had to undergo several painful procedures in the hospital’s HDU and ICU.”
Alongside the other physicians, Biplob was also involved in Anchal’s treatment. He tried to save his wife as a physician while remaining by her side as her husband.
Biplob said, “Alongside the other physicians, I also performed CBI (an emergency life-saving medical procedure) on Anchal to reassure myself. But by then, everything was over.”
“You are a fighter, you will come back”
Biplob was still encouraging his wife while she lay in the ICU. He told her, “You are a fighter, you will come back.”
As a physician, he knew the difficult realities of the situation. But as a husband, he wanted to believe that Anchal would not leave him.
Biplob said, “I believed that she would not leave me and go first. But she did.”
Alongside the other physicians, Biplob was also involved in Anchal’s treatment. But eventually, all efforts came to an end. On 27 September, Anchal died.
Studies were her greatest focus
The two first met at Noakhali Medical College. Biplob was from the fifth batch, while Anchal belonged to the seventh batch. They expressed their love for each other in October 2023. Their families later arranged their marriage.
Biplob said Anchal was a brilliant physician who devoted herself wholeheartedly to her studies. She had pinned a Facebook post announcing that she had passed MRCP Part 1 on 14 November 2024. She also passed her departmental examination on November.
Anchal worked as an assistant registrar in the Department of Neurology at Mugda Medical College Hospital. Her name was expected to appear on the list for permanent appointment soon.
Biplob said Anchal was ahead of him in both the BCS and postgraduate examinations. He also spoke proudly of his wife.
Biplob said, “I was always proud of Anchal. I am also a physician. Even when someone came to me seeking advice, I would say, ‘My wife is a very good physician. Let me ask her whether the medicine I want to prescribe is appropriate.’”
The couple were also careful about protecting themselves from dengue. They used mosquito nets at home and tried to avoid mosquito bites. However, they did not know where Anchal had contracted the disease, as she had to visit various places, including hospitals.
Biplob also said, “If the government could control the mosquitoes responsible for dengue, these mosquitoes would not be around. So many people would not have contracted dengue. I believe the strain of dengue is also changing rapidly.”
The photograph Anchal never got to see
On 28 September, after Anchal’s death, Biplob posted a photograph of the two of them on Facebook. In the photograph, Biplob is wearing a panjabi given to him by Anchal, while Anchal is wearing a sari given to her by Biplob’s younger sister.
Biplob said he had planned to post the photograph much earlier but had been unable to do so because of his busy schedule. Anchal had felt hurt by the delay. He never got the chance to post it while she was alive.
In the post, Biplob wrote, “I did not realise it would take me this long to upload the photograph.”
“We want to be together again”
After losing his wife, Biplob wrote another Facebook post expressing his feelings about their future.
Addressing the Creator, he wrote, “Since I was not born in a country where people die natural deaths, He may choose to give me one death or another as a gift. We want to be together again, in Baikuntha Dham. Because neither of us will be well if we cannot talk to each other. Whether in heaven or on earth.”
The two people who had planned to build a home together are now separated by death. Anchal lives on only in memory, while Biplob faces an unfinished home, the household items they bought and the future they had planned together.
The white flowers Anchal wanted
Anchal would sometimes jokingly tell Biplob that if she died before him, he should take white flowers to her grave.
Perhaps it was nothing more than a joke at the time. But on 27 September, those words became reality. Anchal left this world before Biplob, leaving him behind.
Biplob told Prothom Alo, “Anchal would sometimes jokingly say that if she died before me, I should take white flowers to her grave. As she had asked, I took white roses…”