The girl once tried to escape the torture of her employer by jumping off the roof of her employer’s house. By a strange twist of fate, she survived but got her spinal cord broken.
Now in her 20s, the girl is undergoing treatment at the one-stop crisis centre of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH). She barely remembers her past and identifies herself as Josna. Doctor says she needs rehabilitation.
On June 6, 2012, after Josna survived the jump, her employer admitted her at the Neurosurgery Department of DMCH. The register book of ward no 204 of unit-2 at DMCH says someone named Ayesha admitted her there. Ayesha’s address mentions just two words: Badda, Dhaka.
Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune on Thursday, Josna, in a weak voice, said her mother had died while giving birth to her and her father also died a few days later.
“Mohammad Barud adopted me and I’ve known him as my father. He raised me. He also brought me to Dhaka from Sylhet and left me at my employer’s house. That’s all I can remember,” she said.
Josna is now confined to a wheelchair as, because of her broken spinal cord, she has developed Paraplegia coupled with spinal disease.
On July 2012, doctors made an operation on her spinal cord and three months after the operation, she was transferred to the one-stop crisis centre. The operation, however, did not help her much to recover. Worse, the disease claimed both of her legs.
Josna was sent to Savar CRP for psychotherapy and rehabilitation on December 10, 2012. She was sent back to DMCH after 10 months. Then, after 20 days, she was sent to Manikganj Shelter Centre but authorities concerned there sent her back as well, saying she was suffering from physical and mental diseases.
Josna has been passing her days in a little room at DMCH ever since.
Dr Bilkis Begum, coordinator of the one-stop crisis centre at DMCH, told the Dhaka Tribune that Josna was pretty well but needed rehabilitation now.
“We tried a lot to know her address but she doesn’t remember anything. There are many private organisations who deal with such cases but no one is apparently interested in helping Josna,” she said.
The doctor also urged all to extend their help to the unfortunate girl.