<i> Money claims life of 9-year-old Sonia </i>
A nine-year-old girl lost her battle for life Friday night at a city hospital, as her wretched father failed to continue affording the high medical expenses.
Sonia Akther was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) last Sunday with critical head injuries and was shifted to the ICU of Special Care Hospital Tuesday.
She suffered the wounds after being hit allegedly by the motorcade of ruling party lawmaker Gazi Golam Dastagir in front her school in Bandar upazila, Narayanganj on Sunday.
Dastagir was returning from Madanganj after attending the inaugural ceremony of a power plant there.
Sonia, a student of class I at Ramnagar Government Primary School in Bandar upazila, was standing beside the road to see the motorcade along with other people.
Sonia's father Mohammad Atiar, a day labourer, so far had managed to spend Tk 35,000 exercising his best efforts. But the amount was not enough to continue her treatment.
Everyday he had to spend Tk 9,000 plus the costs of medicines and diagnostic tests at Special Care Hospital. Till Thursday Sonia's treatment cost rose to Tk 27,000 there.
Atiar somehow paid off Tk 10,000 that day and started facing growing pressure from the hospital authorities asking him for the due amount.
He, in on way, could afford the cost. So Sonia's treatment came to a halt Thursday morning. She died around 11:00pm Friday night.
A duty doctor of the hospital said Sonia could be not attended, as no medicines and medical tests prescribed earlier were made available to them.
"Sonia could be saved if provided with proper treatment despite the critical condition," she told this correspondent Thursday afternoon.
She said some emergency diagnostic tests were advised, but Atiar failed to carry out the tests saying, "he had no money left".
Till Sonia's death the treatment costs at Special Care Hospital stood at Tk 26,000. But the authorities released Sonia's body to her family without getting the bill paid.
Meanwhile this correspondent has made a number of vain attempts since Thursday evening to contact Golam Dastagir.
A personal staff of the Awami League leader said they were not informed of the incident.
The victim's relatives also tried to contact Dastagir, but failed.
Officer-in-charge of Bandar Police Station said they did not know about Sonia's incident.
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