<i>2 Mirsarai tragedy survivors fight on</i>
The two surviving schoolboys of the July 11 Mirsarai tragedy are still fighting with the odds in the city's Apollo Hospitals.
Among them, Jewel Barua has been kept on life support at the hospital's Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
His uncle Saikat Barua yesterday told The Daily Star that Apollo's doctors informed them that Jewel's condition is very critical.
Jewel was taken to the Apollo Hospitals on Wednesday along with two other survivors, Raihan Uddin Shuvo and Nayan Shil, from Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) for better treatment.
They were injured when a truck loaded with school-going football fans turned turtle in a roadside water-filled ditch at Mirsarai in Chittagong on July 11.
Of them, Raihan succumbed to his injuries early Thursday raising the death toll to 42.
After surviving the incident, Jewel even attended his second terminal examination at his school, said his aunt Suchitra Barua.
His condition began to deteriorate on August 13 as he felt severe headache and chest ache with respiratory problem and was admitted to CMCH, she said.
He was admitted to the Apollo Hospitals in an unconscious state five days back but his condition still remains unchanged, she added.
According to CMCH doctors, Jewel is suffering from fungal meningitis.
Fungal meningitis is a non-operational, medically curable, but highly infectious illness that affects the brain and the spinal cord, said Professor Dr Tahmina Banu, head of paediatric surgery at CMCH.
Jewel is receiving treatment under the supervision of Apollo's Dr Sandwip Kumar Das, who could not be contacted being on leave till September 17.
Also, the ICU's on-duty physicians hesitated to make any comment about Jewel's condition.
Meanwhile, Nayan is undergoing treatment at High Dependency Unit of the same hospital.
His cousin Basudev Shil said Nayan is supposed to undergo an operation coming Wednesday.
“Nayan is being treated under the supervision of Dr Mathews Sandy,” he said, adding that Nayan's condition has deteriorated from Friday.
Nayan has been undergoing treatment at different hospitals in Chittagong and Dhaka since the accident. He was admitted to CMCH on August 14 from where he was shifted to Apollo Hospitals.
Both Jewel and Nayan are students of class VIII at Abu Torab Bohumukhi High School in Mirsarai.
Mirsarai upazila Chairman Gias Uddin told The Daily Star that they are prepared to take the two survivors to All India Medical Research Centre in Delhi.
“We arranged their passports on emergency basis and are waiting for their health condition to improve for the flight to India,” he added.
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