Except Zarif, first from right, everyone in this family, burnt in a fire at their home in the capital's Uttara on February 26, is now dead. The mother, Sumaiya Khanam, succumbed to her injuries at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital yesterday, ending a 10-day battle for her life. The two other brothers died on the day of the incident and the father the next day. Photo: Collected
With 90 percent of her body burnt, Sumaiya Khanam had been fighting a grim battle for life for 10 days.
Her painful groans, coupled with her cries of loss of her two little children and husband in a devastating fire, would fill the air inside the hospital she was admitted to.
Between the cries and groans, Sumaiya would bemoan how her neighbours declined to help them when all her family members were on fire.
However, all her complaints and sufferings came to an end yesterday.
Sumaiya's brain stopped working around 11:45am and she was put on artificial life support. But she breathed her last at 3:15pm, said doctors at City Hospital Ltd where she was transferred from Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) on Tuesday.
She was aged around 40.
On February 26, a fire engulfed her apartment at Uttara Sector-5 in the capital when her husband Mohammad Shahnawaz, 50, lit the gas stove around 6:30am to make tea.
