Hello to all my
family, friends (and new friends, for that matter).
Where do we begin?
I am not sure. It has been quite a journey since I got that call at 4:06am on
Valentines Day. I will never forget that specific time!
For the first
several days, I would wake up and think, ‘This is all a bad dream,’ but it
wasn't until I would take a few steps out of bed that reality usually sank in.
My brother Tauseef
and I have been on a roller coaster of emotions — worry, fright, love, care,
anger, frustration, sadness and helplessness.
Before I give you
all an update on what is happening here and how my father is doing, I just want
to thank everyone. And I mean everyone who had supported us by way of
text message, email, phone call, donation, spreading the word about our
situation, putting us in contact with doctors in Asia, and/or praying for my
father and our family.
We are forever
grateful and I wonder how we can ever repay you.
An update on our
dad, Abdul
As you’re aware,
he was in an accident involving a tuk tuk less than 24 hours after he landed
here in Bangladesh.
As a result, he
sustained facial cuts and unfortunately severe damage (compression) to the
spinal cord from vertebrae C3 to C6.
He cannot feel
anything from the chest down. He has arm movement to the wrist but no control
of his hand. He has, however, recently had some sensation in his fingers.
The concern is his
breathing. He has no control of his chest muscles and can only breathe with his
diaphragm. This is the main reason why he is in the neuro ICU. For now, his breathing
hasn’t deteriorated. But it hasn’t strengthened all that much either.
He is hanging in
there and just wants to go home. Obviously our objective is to make this happen
for him. It’s what we’ve promised, and what we’ll do.
This being a
developing country, the Bangladeshi hospital system does not have the same
internal processes as back home in Australia. It took over a week to
retrieve all the necessary reports, scans and case summaries to send through to
Sydney for second opinions, as well as for the assessments required for his
medical evacuation.
Communication with
the treating doctor, Dr Chandy, and MediVac Sydney doctors was proving very
difficult for us to organise. Every time we made a step forward, a new day
would send us two steps back.
We want you to all
know that when we are down, we re-read your texts and emails and replay in our
minds the conversations we’ve had with those who have phoned. All of your words
and thoughts keep us strong.
Our new best
friend Victoria Sim, who’s here in Bangladesh on a Young Ambassadors program,
heard of our situation through good friends (thanks Flis & Eddie). Luckily
enough, at the time, she was in Dhaka.
Victoria has
experience and knowledge in spinal injury, as well as connections here and back
home at the Prince Of Wales Hospital in Sydney. She has been a gem, helping us
through this with getting second opinions, helping to understand the details of
my father's status, helping us contact the Australian consulate and helping us
to arrange getting dad home.
Air ambulance out
After retrieving
all the reports, scans, information and opinions from neurosurgeons here in
Dhaka and abroad, we made the decision to get him home ASAP via air ambulance.
He urgently
requires decompression surgery in order to stand a chance at regaining movement
from the chest down.
We requested
contacts for MediVac companies via the consulate and in turn were able to start
getting quotations. Unfortunately the quotes reached $273,000, and later
$205,000. These figures are definitely beyond our financial scope.
… Or flying out on
a commercial carrier
We were advised
that perhaps we could get dad home via a commercial airline on a stretcher
accompanied by a medical team.
Dr. Bonne Lee
(Prince Of Wales Hospital) organised another quotation via commercial air with
Careflight Australia. This came in at just under $100,000, which — with help
from family and friends — is possibly manageable.
We thought we were
close to getting Dad home and were so happy until the treating physician, Dr.
Chandy, informed us he would not sign the airline’s medical transportation
form. He believed dad was not fit to fly on commercial airlines (dad’s
respiratory system was still a concern).
I have to say,
this news severely deflated us. All I could think was, “I have let Dad down.”
Where to from
here?
Our new plan is to
look into getting an air ambulance service from Dhaka to Bangkok where our
father will be reassessed for commercial airline transportation from Bangkok to
Sydney.
We are hoping to
receive this quote tomorrow (Monday) morning. We’re also waiting on another
quote from a company that responded to a recent article Nine MSN posted
about our dire situation here in Dhaka.
Fingers crossed everyone that these figures will land in a ballpark that we can afford.
We again thank each and every one you for your support.
We hope to make our dad smile again soon when we say these words with conviction: "We are going home, Dad."
Love to you all,
Tan and Tauseef
