Suffering from neurological disorder and lung ailment, Gauranga Mondol had gone all the way from Munshiganj to India with a hope to get back a healthy life. His family admitted him to a hospital, having little inkling that he would perish in a fire.
Gauranga, 75, was killed in the fire that broke out in AMRI Hospital in Kolkata yesterday, just three days after he was taken there. He was the lone Bangladeshi among the 90 killed in the devastating flames.
He felt better after the first dose of medicine on Thursday, his grandson Rakkhit Roy told the Daily Star from Kolkata.
“Dadu [grandpa] said he felt much better yesterday and spoke to me last night [Thursday night],” Rakkhit said, adding that Gauranga’s test results were to be available yesterday.
“Who knew my dadu would meet this fate?” a sobbing Rakkhit said.
Gauranga’s son Vidya Sagar was so shocked that he could hardly speak.
Rakkhit and Sagar had accompanied Gauranga to Kolkata.
Rakkhit said the body would be brought home today by a Biman flight.
Paschimbanga Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee consoled him, Sagar and relatives of other fire victims, he added.
Gauranga, a farmer of Sirajdikhan upazila in Munshiganj, had been suffering from Hydrocephalus, which causes the brain to swell, for the last few months. He took treatment in a hospital in the capital, but his condition did not improve, reports our Munshiganj correspondent.
Sagar and Rakkhit took him to Kolkata on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a pall of gloom descended on Gauranga’s house as the news reached his home. His wife was wailing on hearing the news.
“He was admitted to the hospital so that he is cured. But today, he is no more,” said his nephew Jotish Mondol, with tears rolling down his cheeks.
-With The Daily Star input
