Once the eleven-year-old garment worker Anna managed to escape death from the debris of Rana Plaza but it has always stalked her like a shadow.
When a girl of her age usually goes to school she with her two-year older sister, she came to Dhaka to help their six-member family. They joined a garment factory located on the sixth floor of the ill-fated Rana Plaza.
But their dream of living a decent life was shattered on April 24, 2013 when the Rana Plaza collapsed.
Like any other day the two sisters went to the factory in the morning. Her elder sister Banya managed to escape unscathed but a large beam came crashing down on Anna’s right hand. She was pinned to the ground unable to budge even an inch.
She had remained like that for two days before rescuers pulled her out of the rubble by severing her right hand. After that she returned to her village home Komarpara of Narkili under Jamalpur with her sister Banya.
Banya got admitted into Class V in a school in the village. Anna too was spending her time playing with her toys and girls of her age. She even forgot that she lost one of her arms. But little did she know what was befalling her next.
One day she fell to the ground while playing and she received injury on her right knee. She had been on medicine for two months under a doctor in Jamalpur town but in vain. She was then taken to Dhaka on June 11 by the advice of her doctor.
Fate sent her to the Enam Medical College at Savar where she was first treated after the collapse of the Rana Plaza. After a few examinations she was diagnosed with cancer in her right leg and for better treatment she was then taken to the Mohakhali Cancer Hospital.
As this correspondent went to the hospital to see Anna she let out a deep sigh of pain: “I would rather die. I cannot bear the pain any more.”
AFM Anwar Hossain, the on-duty doctor at the hospital, said the condition of Anna was not good. He said after proper examination and diagnosis they could say how much the cancer on her right thigh had spread.
But they have already decided to amputate her right thigh from down her waist and they have take permission from her mother.
Haziron, mother of Anna said she decided to do so to save her daughter’s life.
Anna’s life is now tied to the wheel of fate that she cannot escape. Hers is a life that was ruined in the bud with no fault of her own.
