Toddler survives crash only to pass away hours later

Little Rabbi was in the warmth of his mother's lap when their microbus collided with a bus in Belabo upazila of Narsingdi yesterday morning.

His mother, Sharmin Akhter, 20, succumbed to her injuries at Dhaka Medical College Hospital around 1:50pm.

One-and-a-half-year-old Tasfir Alam Rabbi suffered head injuries but was alive at the time casting a ray of hope. Relatives began thinking about who would take care of the child after he lost all family members travelling in the microbus.   

Then the child lost the battle for life and let out his last breath at a private hospital in Mohammadpur four hours after his mother's death.

“As he [Rabbi] survived such a horrific accident, we hoped he might make it. We started arranging money for his treatment, but he died," said Mohammad Rubel, a friend of Rabbi's father Nur Alam.

Hailing from the city's Kamrangirchar, Rabbi along with his mother, 10-year-old uncle Antor Alam, and grandparents -- Manik Mia, 55, and Mofia Khatun, 48, -- were going to Kishoreganj to attend a village fair to be kicked off on February 15.

Except the two children and the driver, there were 15 passengers in the microbus, said Ziaur Rahman, a cousin of Nur.

The accident took lives of Rabbi and his other family members on board. Four passengers from Kamranghirchar are now undergoing treatment at DMCH.

Rabbi would turn two this April. He was dearest to his grandmother, said Lima Begum, a relative in Kamranghirchar.

"I thought I would look after him after he lost his mother and grandmother. But everything is finished now."

Ziaur said his brother Nur works at a fish wholesale market in Sowarighat in the old part of the capital while his father was a rickshaw-puller.

The microbus set off from Kamrangirchar at 6:00am. Rabbi's mother was on a rear seat with her toddler on the lap.

"The rescuers even told us that they found Rabbi on his mother's lap even after the accident," Ziaur said.

Both Rubel and Ziaur alleged the authorities of DMCH took long to tell them that Rabbi should be kept in Intensive Care Unit.

"The victims reached Dhaka Medical College Hospital around 11:00am. Initially the authorities did not tell us anything. As Rabbi's condition deteriorated around 3:00pm, they told us that he should be shifted to ICU.

"As we asked them to move him to ICU, they replied they didn't have any ICU for children and asked us to take him to a private hospital,” Rubel said.

As the relatives took him to a private hospital in Mohammadpur, Rabbi's condition deteriorated further. He died as he was admitted there.

Asked why Rabbi was not shifted to ICU, Khawaja Abdul Gafur, deputy director of DMCH, said the child needed to be in a paediatric intensive care unit, but the hospital does not have such facility.