Treatment of protesters' injured eyes

Although the number of deaths during the quota-reform movement is yet to be finalised, it has been put at around 800 so far. The number of the injured is many times more. Some of those receiving treatment in hospitals are dying now. This is because not all of them have sustained the same degree of injuries. Many of them may survive the bullet wounds but are fated to get maimed for life. Their legs or hands had to be amputated to save their lives. The interim government has announced that it would take the responsibility of the cost of their medical treatment. Then why the newspapers have to carry reports of helplessness facing families of those injured during the movement for the latter's medical care is really incomprehensible. It appears that a comprehensive plan and coordination are lacking in this regard despite the fact that monetary support is being extended from the Shahid Smriti Foundation to both martyred and injured.

However, the protesters who sustained injuries to their eyes have received better attention courtesy of China. A 10-member team of eye specialists from China arrived in Bangladesh on September 22. They visited the National Ophthalmology Institute and Hospital the next day to check with all 42 protesters with eye injury admitted there. A highly positive development is that an arrangement was made for all protesters injured in the eyes to see both local and Chinese eye specialists between October 5 and October 7. Before this, the Chinese eye consultants duly checked with the types of eye injury, the treatment the patients had received and the progress of their recovery, if any. They have made it clear that those among the injured requiring particularly specialised treatment would be taken abroad for the required medical care.

This is more than just a gesture of goodwill. It is not clear if the patients will be taken to China or any other country for better treatment. Neither is it reported if China wants to treat the patients free of cost. A Google search reveals that China does not rank among the six nations at the forefront of ophthalmology. But its system should be more advanced than that of Bangladesh. Whatever may be the case, the prompt response to this health crisis here from the Chinese eye specialists comes out of a sense of humanitarian emergency not many nations have been very particular about.     

Let the protesters facing the threat of losing their eyesight be given the best of care available in the world. If China can accomplish the job, the victims of police firing and members of their families will ever remain grateful to that country. It will prove the old adage 'a friend in need is a friend indeed'. But in case, restoring eyesight calls for still more sophisticated and advanced eye care, the best option is the United States of America, frontrunner in eye care. Next come Germany, South Korea and India, Thailand and Japan in order. Options for treatment in those countries can as well be explored. After all it is a humanitarian cause and no country should prioritise its commercial interests over the service to the humanity. Here is a special issue of courage, dedication and sacrifice that prompted the young protesters to fight for a just cause and they deserve national and international support and help for getting their eyesight back.