Shot during protest: Many barely hanging on to life

The sudden twitches of his left hand and his attempts to speak in too weak a voice are just about the only signs that 16-year-old Raiyan Ahmed is still alive.
Over the last one month, he has been losing strength gradually.
Raiyan was marching in a victory procession celebrating the Awami League government’s fall on August 5 when he was shot in the head twice. One bullet went through his head and another is still lodged in his skull.
Raiyan’s family has been by his side round the clock. He attempts to tug at the tubes attached to his body in sudden fits, they say.
“He hardly recognises us,” Raiyan’s elder brother Ayman Ahmed told this newspaper. They have been with him for the last 18 days at Dhaka’s National Institute of Neurosciences and Hospital.
A student of Silam PL Multilateral High School in Sylhet, Raiyan was among a crowd standing in front of the South Shurma Police Station when the police opened fire.
After 12 days of treatment at Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital, Raiyan’s condition deteriorated and he was moved to Dhaka. But medical costs have become a major worry for the family of modest means.
Raiyan’s father who works at a local bookshop can hardly afford the Tk 7,000 that they are spending for the treatment every day.
“We have already spent around Tk 2 lakh. We received financial assistance from a few organisations. But that was not much,” said Ayman.
Further, the doctors are uncertain if, at all, and when they might be able to remove the lead slug from Raiyan’s meninges, which are the several layers of membranes that protect the brain.
“We are losing hope. And it breaks our hearts,” said the elder brother in a choking voice.
Raiyan is only one of about 17,000 people wounded, crippled and disabled during the protests. According to reports and estimates, including one by the health ministry, hundreds of protesters have lost the use of one eye or have become blind and hundreds more have had limbs amputated. Many others, like Ratul, are still undergoing treatment.
Not too far from Raiyan lies another young boy — Junaid Islam Ratul. He has been unconscious for 27 days. Struck with over 100 pellets in the chest and other parts of the body, the sixth grader from Bogura briefly gained his senses on September 4.
He asked his mother to take him home before slipping back. This student of PATH Public School was wounded when police opened fire on a crowd with their shotguns on August 5.
Ratul’s elder brother Rahat holds up an X-ray showing the pellet wounds. “He used to dream of joining the army. I don’t know if he will ever do that now,” said Rahat.
Despite the futility of the question, Rahat could not help blurting out, “When will my brother come home?”
The future is not looking much better for the 20-year-old Nupur Chowdhury being treated for gunshot wounds in her legs. She was shot during a protest march in Mirpur on the same day as the other two.
Currently being treated at the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NITOR), Nupur has not been able to walk since she was shot.
At NITOR, 103 injured people are currently undergoing treatment of whom 13 have lost their legs, one an arm.
Sohan Shah was on his way home after work when he was shot in the chest on July 19. The bullet still lodged close to his lungs and heart, the 28-year-old lies awake from constant pain at the National Institute of Diseases of the Chest and Hospital.
Health Adviser Nurjahan Begum said, “More than 1,000 people were killed and over 400 blinded during the protests.”
The National Institute of Opthalmology and Hospital reports that between July 17 and September 4, 17 patients lost sight in both eyes, and 366 have lost the use of one eye. The hospital treated over 700 patients during that time.
The Dhaka Medical College Hospital has also seen an influx of patients, with more than 250 treated for eye injuries. Among them, 52 had surgeries. Of them, 24 lost the use of one eye and four were completely blinded.
Mobin, 16, is one who has become blind. Doctors say that the injuries were too severe for him to ever regain eyesight.
Originally from Damudya in Shariatpur, Mobin worked at a computer store at Uttara where he was shot in both eyes on July 18 during a clash between protesters and police.
Although the interim government announced on August 17 that it would bear the costs of medical treatment for the injured, the assistance has yet to make its way to the patients.