Crowd at Dhaka Medical thins but patients in desperate need of blood

Editor's note: This article was first published in the print edition of The Business Standard on 22 July 2024, during Bangladesh's nationwide internet blackout and curfew. The report was filed from Dhaka Medical College Hospital on the second day of the curfew, amid the student-led quota reform uprising that saw security forces fire live rounds on unarmed civilians. A near-total internet shutdown, imposed by the Sheikh Hasina government from 18 July, meant this and other frontline reporting from those days never appeared online. It is being archived here for the public record.

Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) returned to its regular day of business yesterday. Or at least it seemed so considering the magnitude of chaos seen in the last couple of days. 

For any other day, six deaths and 68 injured (as of 7:30 pm) would sound like big news. But it somehow looked "normal" on Sunday, according to almost everyone around at DMCH, from journalists to the information booth to the Ansar guards.

The crowded casualty room from the previous day also looked not so crowded. Patients still logged in. Some with bullet wounds came from Naryanganj. One of the deceased also came from Naryanganj, who reportedly died in a clash there on Sunday. 

One of the injured, Bablu, was shot on his right leg. He came to the hospital around 1pm and did not get a seat as of 7pm after admission. The hospital was teeming with patients.  

A team from the Hijra community have been busy all week volunteering for the hospital. They were also busy yesterday helping patients. Whenever an ambulance comes, they help the hospital workers who were not in enough numbers. 

But the most crucial lack of yesterday was not manpower, the shortage of blood. Nowadays, arranging blood is a matter of a Facebook post. Since the internet is off, managing blood became an ordeal.

The makeshift blood donation campaign just in front of the emergency room came as a help but it was not enough. 

"Today the demand for blood was 70 bags, we could manage only 35," said Abdullah Al Mamun, general secretary of a voluntary blood donating organisation. 

Random people around the hospital came forward to provide blood in the crisis, thanks to the volunteers who were encouraging people to donate blood though a hand mike.

Till filing the report at 8pm, at least six people were registered at Dhaka Medical College Hospital mortuary. Among them, there succumbed to injuries on Saturday late night and Sunday morning. Another three bodies were registered after 2pm on Sunday.

Most of the deceased sustained live bullets, some of which even pierced the bodies from one side to another, said one of the medical staff who handled bodies at DMCH emergency and causality department. 

The dead bodies were brought to DMCH from Jatrabari, Matuail, Narayanganj and Gopibagh areas. 

The odor one may encounter while entering DMCH forensic and toxicology department vicinity is nerve-wrecking.

A morgue staffer, wishing anonymity, told TBS, "We had to handle bodies of four-year-old, 10-year-old children. Now, you may ponder how crucial and pathetic time we are passing through."

At the entrance of DMCH emergency department, a father was holding his seven-year-old daughter on his lap. The children who sustained bullet marks on her left leg were on their way home after receiving treatment. 

When asked about his identity, the father responded, "Why would you ask about our identities, better you ask who shot my child. We do not want any more hassle by revealing identities. We do not want justice, just want to go home."

A middle-aged woman, who has been selling tea in front of DMCH main gate for the last couple of years, told TBS that she never saw such bullet-wound bodies in her time there.