Little Suraiya was shifted to a general cabin at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital yesterday, 23 days after she was hit by a bullet in her mother’s womb.
She had been at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) since July 31 and now she will be staying – for the first time after her emergency surgical birth – with her mother Nazma Begum in one of the cabins on the second floor of the DMCH main building.
Doctors said she could have been moved earlier but the shift had been delayed because the cabin had to be readied for giving the infant 24-hour emergency care.
Her doctor Kaniz Hasina, associate professor of paediatrics at Dhaka Medical College, said: “We have shifted Suraiya as her condition is improving fast.”
Three nurses have been stationed at the cabin and they would work by rotation to make sure that at least one of them is always present beside her, Dr Kaniz said.
She also said that they might release Suraiya by the end of next week if everything goes well.
The baby was brought to the DMCH on July 23 after an emergency C-section at the General Hospital in Magura, her hometown.
Suraiya was injured in the womb when her seven-month pregnant mother was shot in the abdomen during an attack by ruling party supporters the same day in their Magura residence. One of her grandfathers was killed in that attack.
The bullet went through the unborn baby’s right shoulder and damaged her right eye. She was born after a three-hour surgery at the Magura hospital.
Her mother Nazma was brought to the DMCH on July 30. The next day, Suraiya was taken to the NICU and her mother to ward 212.
