His whole body except the left leg was free. The leg was stuck in the muddy ditch bed and the railing of the truck. Only a few inches under the water, Borhan felt it was miles to conquer.
He tried to gather strength to give it a last try. Someone trapped under the truck pulled by his stuck leg at that moment.
Borhan is one of those who narrowly escaped from the Monday’s tragic road crash in Chittagong that claimed 44 lives, 42 of them school and college students. However, not anytime soon are the survivors going to recover from their physical and mental trauma.
“At last, I managed to bring my nose out of the water to breath,” said the class VII student of Abu Torab Bahumukhi High School.
“I saw some legs struggling outside as some of my friends’ bodies were also stuck under the vehicle,” he added.
Imran Hossain, a class X student of the school who was trapped inside the cage of the truck, tried to move in vain.
“I could not hold for long. Thinking that I was going to die, I just gave in to the water and mud entering my mouth,” he said.
Imran was lucky, as someone caught him by the hair and pushed him out.
Almost dead by then, Imran found the rescuer to be his cousin, Najimuddin.
They got on the hired truck along with their friends after watching a match of Bangabandhu Gold Cup Primary School Football Tournament in a stadium in the upazila.
The truck carrying about 70 students flipped over into the roadside ditch near Mayani Bridge in Mirsarai.
Also thought he was going to die is Habib Ullah, the first boy of class VII of the same school.
He tried his best to crawl out, but it appeared an uphill task. Muddy water trickled through his nose and mouth making it impossible for him to move. At one stage, he lost his strength and fell unconscious.
Locals rescued him some 15 minutes after the crash and took him to the house of a local doctor, his mother Hasina Begum told The Daily Star yesterday.
The family found him there after a frantic search.
He was undergoing treatment at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) last night.
“Mother, I can’t breathe, take me to a hospital,” groaned Habib, clasping his mother’s hands. Dr Yasin, in whose house he was taken, gave him some medicine and an injection but his condition did not improve.
He was then rushed to Shefa Insan Hospital at Bariar Hat where doctors gave him oxygen and saline, but with no success.
The family took him home on that night but admitted him to the CMCH yesterday morning.
Maswood Ahmed, in-charge of the ICU, said Habib is suffering from acute respiratory distress syndrome. He is, however, out of danger.
Mosleh Uddin, another student, was receiving treatment at the CMCH. His condition was also improving.
“There was no way to get out of the truck. It buried us into the mud and forced many to drown,” said Mithu Chandra Nath, another survivor of Abu Torab High School.
“I saw many people running to and fro and heard shouting and crying before I lost my sense,” said Mithu, who was undergoing treatment at Surgescope Hospital in the port city.
He lost his cousin Rupam Chandra Nath in the accident.
Three other schoolboys — Najmul Huda, Palash Chakraborty, and Kajal Nath — are also being treated at the ICU of the hospital.
Six more were at the ICU of Centre Point Hospital.
One of them is 18-year-old Raihan. His father Nurul Afsar said Raihan is his only hope.
“My only dream was to bring him up properly,” said Nurul, a CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver.
Raihan’s condition was stated to be critical.
It may be mentioned that all the survivors were first taken to CMCH but some of them were shifted to private hospitals due to bed shortage.
-With The Daily Star input
