by Shaheen Mollah

DHAKA (The daily Star/ANN) - “Maybe I could have saved my son had he been admitted [to a hospital] and had we got the test reports earlier.”

Raiyan Sarker, 11, lost the battle against dengue at a city hospital on Friday. After burying him at a Tejgaon graveyard, his father Momin Sarker went straight back to the hospital later that night to attend to his daughter, who is suffering from the same disease.

Maliha, 6, kept asking about her brother, but Momin and his wife Jannat Ara Jahan had no answer. But the young girl was adamant to know what had happened. She was on the same bed where Raiyan was before he was shifted to the hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).

“I have lost my son in a matter of days,” Momin, who works at ACI Limited, said to The Daily Star yesterday.

He said his daughter began running a fever on July 25 and his son, a six-grader at Sarkari Mohammadpur School and College, on July 28.

“Raiyan woke up with a fever that day. He, however, took a paracetamol and went to school. Afterwards, his temperature shot up. He also said he was feeling very weak,” said Momin, who lives with family in the capital’s Shekhertek area.

When Raiyan’s temperature rose to 105 degrees Celsius, he was taken to see a doctor at a chamber in Mirpur. As advised by the physician, Raiyan and Maliha went for a dengue test at a diagnostic centre in Mirpur the same day.

The diagnostic report came on July 30 and it showed the siblings had dengue.

“Raiyan’s fever came down that day. We desperately looked for a hospital bed but failed,” his father said.

The boy started throwing up later that night. As his condition worsened, he was admitted to a hospital in Panthapath area. The next day, Raiyan was shifted to the PICU and he died on Friday afternoon.

“Maybe I could have saved my son had he been admitted [to a hospital] and had we got the test reports earlier,” he said.

 “My son had secured golden A+ in his PSC exams. He had much interest in space science.”