Acid attacks leave scar on Bangladesh

By Leah Oatway

 

Dhaka // While most parents dream of the day their children start university or get married, all Itty Rani wants is to see her son smile.

 

When he was just 49 days old, Ms Rani’s baby, Durjoy, was force-fed acid, allegedly by another family member, in a dispute over inheritance.

 

While Ms Rani cooked dinner, oblivious to what was happening in the next room, the liquid burnt through Durjoy’s tiny mouth and throat, destroying his gums, tongue, chin, lips and windpipe.

 

“I was in the kitchen and I heard him shouting from the other room,” she said. “When I heard him shout I ran to the room. I found him screaming and shouting. His face and neck and clothes were all black and his eyes were rolling.

 

“I was also screaming. I am his mother. I was so scared. I didn’t know what to do.”

 

Since the incident, Durjoy – whose name means “invincible” – has been unable to smile, eat or speak, and now breathes through a hole in his neck.

 

His home remains a glass partitioned room in a small hospital in the suburbs of Dhaka that belongs to the Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF), a non-governmental organisation formed in 1999 by a group of Bangladeshi medical practitioners in response to the rapidly growing number of acid attacks in the country.

 

Durjoy is fed three times daily by a tube that runs from his nose to his stomach and large dark scars cover his lower face, back, legs and arms – the result of numerous skin grafts.

 

He is about to fly to Hong Kong with his parents for pioneering stem cell surgery to rebuild his mouth and lower lip, his second trip to the hospital in two years.

 

Dr Andrew Burd, the chief of the division of plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgery at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong, said the little boy is lucky to be alive.

 

“Durjoy had acid poured into his mouth and, mercifully in some respects, it appears it caused him to choke and spit the acid out,” he said. “If he had swallowed the acid he would be dead.

 

“But the effect is that the floor of his mouth, including his tongue, is just a sheet of scar tissue. Indeed, the surface of the hard palate and the soft palate are also covered in scars and when he came to us initially there was just a tiny hole connecting his mouth to his throat.”

 

Durjoy’s lower lip was also destroyed in the attack, and his lower teeth were pulled down when his mouth melted so that they stick out horizontally rather than standing vertically.

 

All of the skin on his neck was burnt and a sheet of scar tissue connects his lower jaw to his chest, both of which have now been corrected.

 

But while some of the external scar problems have been addressed, and the back of the mouth lining has been opened up with skin grafts, Dr Burd said the inside of Durjoy’s mouth is still a cause for concern.

 

“A team of researchers are now looking at isolating cells and tissues from human umbilical cords and adult fatty tissue to reline the mouth and restore the mouth so that it functions normally,” he said.

 

“There will be some taste buds still present but one of our research goals is to see if we can stimulate the growth of more from the stem cells we are developing.”

 

As far as eating goes, Dr Burd said Durjoy has a mechanical problem caused by scarring that prevents him being able to swallow.

 

“His tongue is not functioning so he cannot make the ball of solid food and propel it to the back of his mouth to swallow as would happen normally,” he said. “He can only manage sips of water.”

 

Dr Burd is hopeful that one day it may be possible for Durjoy to swallow by himself, but the boy faces a long road filled with complex mouth work as well as further reconstruction of his jaw and lower lip.

 

The ASF was set up nine years ago by a group of Bangladeshi doctors in a bid to fight for the rights of victims of attacks.

 

While the ASF said the rate of incidents has decreased since 2003, one attack is still reported every two days. The foundation’s annual report for 2006 recorded 180 attacks that injured 221 individuals – 150 women, 71 men, 16 young girls and 14 young boys.

 

The main motivation for attacks continues to be disputes over land and property, as was allegedly the case for young Durjoy, though other motives include a refusal or rejection of love and marriage and marital or family disputes.

 

Ms Rani believes her sister-in-law, who had two daughters, committed the act with the intent to kill the little boy as Hindu custom allows only males to inherit family property. But the case she filed almost a year ago is still in the Bangladeshi legal system and no one has been prosecuted.

 

In 2002, the Acid Control Act was passed to regulate the import, export, use and waste management of acid and the Acid Crime Control Act considers acid violence a non-bailable offence that carries the death penalty.

 

But ASF staff said controlling who buys acid, a tool used by most carpenters and jewellery makers in the country, is all but impossible for authorities.

 

The ASF’s legal unit – which includes lawyers from various associations and legal aid organisations – is helping such victims as Durjoy and his parents to fight their attacker through the legal system.

 

More than 443 people in 253 acid-related cases have been sentenced by the courts, some of whom received life or lengthy prison terms. Fifty people were sentenced to death, but as yet no one has been executed.

 

Two years after the attack, Durjoy’s scars may have faded but the memory for Ms Rani of that day has not.

 

Dr Burd hopes the reconstruction of Durjoy’s lower lip next year will allow Ms Rani the chance to see her son smile for the first time.

 

The National

http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081029/FOREIGN/673744086/1103/SPORT

loatway@thenational.ae