Bangladesh News

In a state of near unconsciousness, it was almost impossible for Merin to recognise the place she was lying at. She had to lie alone on a stretcher clinging to a mat with her brother gone in search of a space to get her sister ‘hospitalised’.

The 17-year-old was admitted to Ward-35 of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) on January 29 where there were 47 patients lying on the floor in addition to the 40 lucky patients who could manage to have a seat to lie on.

And there was no room even on the floor to accommodate Merin, compelling her worried family members to get a mat and grab a space.

The Daily Star photojournalist snapped sequences of the ordeal that Merin had to go through like thousands others who have been lying on the floor since admission.

She was rushed to hospital to measure gravity of and heal her head injury but had to wait for over one and half hours before her brother could manage a place on the floor.

Interestingly, the register of the ward showed that there were 103 patients admitted against its capacity of 40. The lensman, however, could not find rest of the 16 patients in the ward. “They might have be lying anywhere around, either on the floor or on the corridor,” chuckled a ward boy.

Thanks to accommodation crisis, mat business has become attractive at DMCH with sellers charging price between Tk 60 and Tk 120 per mat.