Bashundhara Group chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan stands by sick Tasmia

Shamima Akhter, a relieved mother, holds her daughter on her flank in a calm, assured mood and prays silently for her daughter’s permanent recovery from chronic illness. “I’ve the lone daughter and cannot imagine my life without her. I’m thankful to almighty Allah and then grateful to Bashundhara Group Chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan for his munificence to meet the medical expenses of my daughter.” Mohammad Abu Tayeb, press and media adviser of the country’s largest conglomerate, was also a great help in time of her doting daughter’s distress. The relaxed Shamima said she would like to invite the two persons to her home when her daughter recovers fully. Her two-years-old daughter Tasmia Islam has been undergoing treatment at the paediatric department of Ibrahim Cardiac Hospitals with severe cardiac complexities. Bashundhara Group responded to the appeal made through a report published in an English daily on January 28 to save Tasmia. On 27 January, poor farmer Syed Fahadul Islam returned home in Noagram village of Lohagara under Naogaon with her ailing offspring after showing her physicians at National Heart Institute in Dhaka. Doctors told Fahad that Tasmia has a perforated heart, coupled with other complications, that would cost him at least Tk 0.4 million for treatment. The hospital authorities gave Fahad 15 days’ time to manage the money. Poor Fahad fell there deep in contemplation about how to manage the megabucks. But fortune smiled on the father. Much to everyone’s surprise, he got a phone call in the morning of January 28. He said a gentleman named Abu Tayeb phoned him and asked him whether he knew about Bashundhara Group. Fahad replied in the positive. “Abu Tayeb told me that the chairman of Bashundhara Group came to know about the illness of my daughter and was willing to bear the total cost of my daughter’s treatment,” Fahad said. “He [Tayeb] told me to come to Dhaka with my daughter as Bashundhara Group chairman will pay the hospital bill of my daughter at Ibrahim Cardiac Hospitals.” Rested assured, Fahad and his wife Shamima came to Dhaka with their daughter Tasmia on January 29. The next morning, she was hospitalised the next morning under the supervision of Prof Mujibur Rahman and Prof Shahidul Islam. Tasmia is in a critical condition, Prof Mujibur told daily sun. “First, we’ll do a series of tests and examinations, including CT angiogram and echo test, of the child. If the tests find any boil in her head, we’ll treat that first. Then we’ll go for heart operation.” Fahad told this correspondent that Tasmia had been suffering from physical illness since 10 months of her age. “Physicians in Naogaon and Jessore said Tasmia has perforation in her heart. They referred her to the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases in Dhaka,” he said. “I begged many people for help but to no avail. The chairman of Bashundhara Group came forward to help me. I’m unable to repay his money in my lifetime. May Allah bless him.” Fahad sought everybody’s blessing for his daughter.