INTERNATIONAL LIFELINE
She was attacked with acid in Bangladesh. Her salvation may come in Toronto,
DHAKA, BANGLADESH— Popy Rani Das remembers the last meal she ever ate — rice, lentils and potatoes from the work cafeteria. It was Sept. 7, 2010.
Feeling ill that night, she skipped dinner and lay down, asking her husband to bring her a glass of water. He handed her a stainless steel mug filled with a clear, odourless liquid.
“I drank it and immediately had a terrible burning sensation. I thought it was hot water. But then I fell from my bed to the floor,” recalls Das, 27. “Within minutes I was vomiting, and then fell unconscious.”
Her mother hired a rickshaw to take her to a private hospital in their town of Kirshoreganj, 100 kilometres from Dhaka.
“It was an acid attack. I had never even heard of this,” says Das, crying at the memory.
Her husband, who had been angry and abusive for months about what he claimed was an insufficient dowry, never expected her to live.
But Das survived. Her esophagus, the tube that carries food from the throat to the stomach, was destroyed. Her laryngeal inlet was damaged, causing her voice to become raspy and hoarse.
Five years later, she is severely underweight. She lives in a hospital so she can manage the feeding tube that goes into her stomach, delivering food straight to her small intestine. Eight times a day, she purees rice, lentils, fruits and chicken in a blender.
“I can’t swallow my own saliva,” Das says in an interview in the patient ward of Dhaka’s Acid Survivors Foundation. “If I cough it hurts my abdomen. And I try not to cry, because it’s really bad for me.”
At five feet and just 77 pounds, Das is susceptible to pneumonia. She spends her days sewing designs on blouses for other patients, and embroiders butterflies and hearts onto white handkerchiefs. Bangladesh hospitals do not have the capacity to treat her further, notes her four-page medical chart.
But a chance visit in February by a Canadian plastic surgeon has given Das hope that she can get the operation she needs: complex reconstructive surgery on her esophagus. Dr. Toni Zhong — in Dhaka for a medical mission to help women with severe burn injuries — met Das, and referred her case to colleagues in Toronto.
“There are only a handful of experts who can do this kind of operation in the world and they happen to be in Toronto,” said Zhong, director of the University Health Network’s breast reconstruction program.
Those experts include Dr. Ralph Gilbert and Dr. David Goldstein, and thoracic surgeon Dr. Gail Darling. They would remove part of Das’s burnt stomach and reconstruct a new esophagus from part of her small intestines — as well as rebuild her voice box. Surgery would take approximately 14 hours, and Das would be in hospital for three to four weeks.
No surgery has been planned yet; in such cases, the surgeons and her advocates must fundraise to cover some of the costs, Zhong said.
Acid violence, usually directed toward women who have spurned advances of a male or due to dowry disputes, has been decreasing in Bangladesh. Public education and better law enforcement helped bring down the number of attacks to 59 in 2015 from 494 in 2002, according to the Acid Survivors Foundation.
“People now know they will be punished if they throw acid and that acts as a deterrent, even if the conviction rate is only 10 per cent,” said Selina Ahmed, executive director of the foundation.
Bangladesh introduced two laws in 2002 to speed up trials and to tighten regulations on the use and sale of acid, common in this country because of its widespread applications in the garment industry.
For survivors of attacks, the consequences are devastating. Many require lifelong medical care and multiple surgeries. They are ostracized and have difficulty finding work. Some are abandoned by their families. Anxiety, fear, post-traumatic stress disorder and even mental breakdown are also common because of their distorted appearance, says Ahmed.
Das, who has anxiety and vertigo, never got the satisfaction of seeing her husband brought to justice. She and her mother requested that charges be filed, but police said they could not locate him.
Das is grateful to the Dhaka hospital for allowing her to live here, but knows she needs treatment in order to survive longterm. “I didn’t do any harm to anyone. This is not my fault,” she says. “I pray to God I will get well.”