Reshma Begum, the 23-year-old “wonder woman”, is gradually recuperating at the Savar Combined Military Hospital (CMH) after soldiers and firemen pulled her out from the rubble of Rana Plaza on Friday. She used to work in a garment factory in the collapsed building. Doctors described her condition as stable. She is in good health and was on normal diet. But she may have to stay in the hospital a few more days before returning to normal life, said a doctor. She is in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the hospital.
Reshma, a resident of Ghoraghat, Dinajpur, spoke to her brother, Sadequl, a rickshaw-puller who came to see her at the hospital on Saturday. She is the youngest among five children of her parents.
Visitors, including reporters, have been barred from seeing her, as doctors don’t want her to “re-live” her traumatic experience under the rubble for 17 days, living on a meagre ration of dry food and water left behind by workers who perished.
She was pulled out from the rubble with the help of hand tools and hacksaws, making it one of the greatest rescue operations in the country’s history by firemen and soldiers and officers from the Army Engineering Corps of the 9th Infantry Division of the Bangladesh Army.
Major General Choudhury Hasan Suhrawardy, GOC, 9 Division, told reporters on Saturday that Reshma is recovering fast.
Rescue operations at the collapsed building site continued for the 18th day. So far 1,085 bodies have been recovered. It will continue, the GOC, 9 Division, coordinating the rescue work, said.
Zulfikar Lenin, director of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), who is coordinating the medical teams monitoring the treatment, said Sheikh Hasina has taken the responsibility of treatment of those who had survived one of the world’s worst building collapses . For those who had lost their limbs, the Prime Minister is making arrangements for organising an income of up to Tk. 10,000 per month, Lenin said.
A medical team, along with psychiatrists, visited Reshma and other survivors undergoing treatment at the CMH and Enam Medical College Hospital.
Doctors said Reshma’s condition is stable. But she is being given all kinds of medical care, including psychiatric therapy, to help her overcome the trauma.
The survivors and the rescuers may suffer psychological problems. Two or three of them have already been admitted to different hospitals in Dhaka.
“We have advised the authorities to provide psychiatric treatment to all the rescuers on completion of rescue operations at Rana Plaza. As they have recovered many dead bodies from the rubble of the Plaza, it may haunt them, leading to psychiatric problems,” Lenin said.
Professor Dr Mehtab Khanam, department of psychology, Dhaka University, told the BBC Radio’s Bengali Service on Saturday that Reshma should not have any visitors asking her questions that may rekindle her memories of the dark days, as she needs rest to put her past behind.
-With The Independent input
