Neurosurgeon Dies in Dhaka Hospital from Burn Injuries

Doctor, who suffered burn injuries at his home on July 22, died in a hospital in Dhaka.

Rajib Bhattachariya, 36, died Tuesday morning at Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, said Dr. Partha Shankar Pal.

Rajib, a neurosurgeon at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, had burned 87 per cent of his body, said Pal, media reported.

The fire erupted when Rajib was pouring hand sanitizers from one bottle to another in their second-storey flat on a building near East Plaza, said the Kalabagan Police Station OC Paritosh Chandra Sen.

Some sanitiser spilt at that time and fire from mosquito coil or some other source sparked a flame, Paritosh said.

His wife Anushka Bhattacharya, 32, registrar of the ophthalmology department at Central Medical College in Shyamoli, was injured when she tried to rescue her husband.

They were subsequently admitted to a hospital with critical injuries.

Anushka had suffered burns to 20 per cent of her body and is still receiving treatment at the hospital, said Pal.

The couple’s five-year-old daughter has been staying with Rajib’s parents in Cumilla for several weeks apparently because Rajib and Anushka feared the girl would get infected from them amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Experts have repeated fire threats of alcohol-based sanitizers since the epidemic started earlier this year.

The pandemic has caused residents across the world to adhere to health rules, such as hand-washing and using masks, to deter infection.