On August 19, 2025, I wrote about a heartbreaking accident. A worker, while working on the roof of a building, fell from the third floor after getting entangled in an electric wire. His life turned into a living nightmare: a broken spine, shattered bones, and multiple parts of his body electrocuted and burned. The accident of this man I know is not just a personal tragedy, but a naked reflection of the deep crisis in Bangladesh’s health system.
After the accident, he was rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH)—the country’s largest government hospital, the last refuge for ordinary people. But disappointment awaited him there. Even after waiting for a day, he did not get a bed, nor did he get to see a specialist doctor. A gang of brokers surrounded the distraught relatives in the hospital corridors. They tempted him with sweet words: “There will be no treatment here. The patient will die. Let’s take him to our clinic, we will get a doctor 24 hours a day, the patient will recover soon.” The family, desperate for their loved one, fell into the trap of brokers in good faith. The patient was taken from the hospital to a so-called private clinic with his name removed.