Survivors recount their date with death

Teenage girl Aoshi, a worker in a readymade garment factory housed in the collapsed building in Savar, saw seven-eight colleagues dying under the debris close to her.

Moinul Hoque Chowdhurybdnews24.com
Published : 27 April 2013, 10:19 AM
Updated : 27 April 2013, 11:27 AM

In fact, having given up all hopes of survival, she had started preparing herself to embrace death, but the luck was on her side, and she survived.

Aoshi still can’t believe that she is alive. Sometimes she thinks her survival is untrue, a dream.

Number of people like Aoshi undergoing treatment at Savar’s Combined Military Hospital is quite large. According to the hospital’s information centre, until Saturday, 382 injured were admitted there. Of them, 21 died, 210 were released and 118 are still undergoing treatment.

Aoshi shared her terrible 36-hour experiences with bdnews24.com on Friday. “It seemed that I was in a hell. My whole body had stink of dead bodies. They were my colleagues only three days back. At one stage I gave up the hope for survival. Only God knows how I survived.”

She said, “Work at the (garment) factory was stopped following discovery of a crack in the building. We were not supposed to come (to the work) following day. But we were asked to come and told that there will be no problem.”

Aoshi said she came to work having been assured of safety.

“Before the collapse, there was a huge sound in the building. We tried to get out. It seemed that the roof collapsed within a second. I was trapped in the bathroom. I was rescued after one day and one night,” she said.

Rokeya Parvin, anther garment factory owner, was groaning in only pain meters away from Aoshi.

She, who is yet to trace out her husband working in the same factory, said, “The building kept shaking for 15 minutes. We didn’t know that the owner (of the factory) was so heartless. Had the shift manager wished, we could have got out (of the building).”

“The owner is son of beast. He forced everyone to come to the building.”

Demanding exemplary punishment to the factory owner, she again started sobbing for her husband.

Another worker Hasi, who also survived the accident, said she saw three people dying of thirst under the debris. “It’s a wonder that I’m alive. It’s my second life.”

Though she is yet to decide if she will work again in garment factory, it is certain that the tormenting experience will haunt her whole life.

Another unidentified teenage girl, who was lying on a bed in the intensive care unit, covered her face knowing that journalists had come to the hospital.

It could not be known if she has lost her memories, or terrible experience was haunting her.

Physician Lt Col Hasan Murshed said, “They’ve been deranged mentally. It’s because of trauma. They cannot speak. They’ve been mentally imbalanced.”

Around 300 of the injured rushed to the hospital were senseless during admission.