Toddler keeps asking for lost leg

Ever since she regained consciousness after a surgery, the two-and-a-half year old girl has been tirelessly searching for her amputated right leg.

“Where is my leg?” little Sumaiya keeps asking frantically, while her teary-eyed parents watch over her.

“We don't know how to console her,” her parents said while talking to this correspondent at Rangpur Medical College Hospital (RMCH) yesterday.

“She was in excruciating pain when she arrived at the hospital on April 22, after a tractor had crushed her right leg and injured her head and chest,” doctors at RMCH said.

“We have tried our best to save her leg, but we could do nothing to help the little soul,” said Dr. Ajoy Kumar Roy, director of RMCH.

“Already she has had two surgeries and a third may be conducted on Sunday,” said Dr Shafiqul Islam, head of surgery department at the hospital. “The girl is suffering from Anaemia, so she cannot be operated on unless she is fit,” he added.

Meanwhile, Shafiqul Islam Babu, father of the child, is desperately worrying about her treatment costs and her future. “Please stop my daughter's tears,” he begged the doctors and this correspondent.

Babu is a day labourer at a local rice factory and the sole earner in the family. Babu, his wife, and their two children -- Sumaiya and her brother Kajol, 6 -- live in the Mahiganj area of Rangpur city.

“I make Tk 250 a day, and have not been to work since her accident,” Babu said. He doesn't know where the money will come from for further treatments. He has already spent Tk 60,000 for his daughter's treatment, he said, adding that he borrowed the money on high interest.

On April 22, Sumaiya's mother Kazoli Begum took her to a local market and bought her a bright red dress. After they returned, the child insisted to go to the mill where her father worked; she wanted to show her new dress to her father.

After meeting her father, Sumaiya went out to play in the mill which is located on Rangpur-Sundarganj road in Mahiganj area. Suddenly, a tractor, after losing control over its wheels, hit the girl, while she was playing. Locals rescued the girl and rushed her to RMCH.

Contacted, Babul Mia, officer-in-charge (OC) of Rangpur Sadar Police Station said that the tractor has been seized, however, the driver could not be arrested yet. “The victim's family did not file any case yet, so we could not arrest anyone,” said the OC.