Ershad suffering from myelodysplastic syndrome, Jatiya Party wants to take him to Singapore

The Jatiya Party wants to take its ailing Chairman HM Ershad, who is being treated at the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka, to Singapore for advanced medical treatment.

Secretary General Moshiur Rahman Ranga briefed the media about the party’s decision after a meeting of its presidium at its Banani office on Wednesday.

The leader of official opposition in parliament is suffering from myelodysplastic syndrome, according to Ranga.

Symptoms of myelodysplastic syndrome may include feeling tired, shortness of breath, easy bleeding, or frequent infections caused by poorly formed blood cells or ones that do not work properly.

Immature blood cells in the bone marrow of patients suffering from the syndrome do not mature and therefore do not become healthy blood cells.

In Ershad’s case, the count of haemoglobin formation is 10 while the normal rate is 12, according to Ranga.

“He still needs to be given blood. We want to take him to the General Hospital in Singapore as his condition is improving,” the Jatiya Party leader said.

Doctors treating Ershad in Bangladesh were communicating with those in Singapore, he said.

“We are ready if doctors come from Singapore and express eagerness to take him there. The Jatiya Party is ready to bear the cost of his travel by air ambulance and treatment,” Ranga said. 

The 89-year-old already had a low haemoglobin level in his blood and was diagnosed with lung infection and kidney ailment after he was admitted to the CMH on June 22.

After visiting him earlier on Wednesday, his brother and the party’s Acting Chairman GM Quader said Ershad’s health was improving as the infection in his lungs has reduced and he was breathing quite normally.

He had travelled to Singapore for treatment several times before and after the Dec 30 general election last year due to illness.

Ranga said the party would organise special prayers on Friday at mosques, temples, pagodas, and churches for Ershad's recovery.

The party has suspended all its organisational activities except urgent businesses, he added.

When his attention was drawn to the absence of Ershad’s wife and party Senior Co-Chairman Raushon Ershad in the meeting, Ranga said the deputy leader of opposition in parliament was herself ill.

“But she spoke to me on the phone during the meeting. I'm in constant communication with her,” Ranga said, claiming that Raushon did not differ with the party decision on Ershad’s treatment.