The uncaptured story of healing of an Abscess case

“When we refer a patient in government hospital, it is not just an attempt of adding a number to
achievement. The struggle in the pathway of ensuring services for our patient cannot be explained in
number rather it entails a story to be told which has been unheard for many years”. Hasibul Raihan, a
technical officer works for APOSH at Rajshahi, in the Harm Reduction Programme for People Who
Inject Drug (PWID), explained compassionately while telling the story of healing of a complicated
abscess case.
NurIslam is 57 years of PWID who has been injecting drugs for decades. Because of his drug using life,
he was ostracized from his family and started living a street based life pursuing what is socially
considered as odd jobs. He mostly picks rags for his living and collecting money for his drugs. Later he
was reintegrated to his family in a final try to change his life. In that process, his family got him married
to turn his life around; however, it did not last long since he could not abstain from taking drugs. He
permanently placed himself in drug centric life and currently living with her mother and earn living by
pulling rickshaw.

Developing an abscess is one of the harmful repercussion of drug injection and PWID finds it apparently
difficult to avoid due to their unsafe injecting practices. Nur Islam is not exception here. Shoriful Islam
an outreach worker of APOSH, while working in his spot, noticed Nur Islam having an abscess and he
found out that he had been suffering from this for weeks. Without any delay he took him to the outlet
of APOSH. Rajob Ali, who works as SACMO, diligently inspected his condition and started providing
treatment. He conducted abscess dressing and other treatment in a timely manner for 42 days but later
he realized that this case is complicated and entails treatment from Rajashahi Medical College Hospital.
The story, then, entered into a complicated path. Rajshahi Medical College is already overly saturated
with patients. Long queueof patients, shortage of beds, doctors, overflow of patients epitomize the
reality. When Rajob Ali arrived in the surgery department with Nur Islam, he realized difficulty lurks in
every steps. Because of his unkempt appearance, theydid not take long to find out Nur Islam is drug
user. The larger outlook towards drug users and perspective loaded with stigma still exist in the society
and hospital people are not out of that. As a result, their initial reaction towards Nur Islam was
neglecting. Nobody was willing to come near him to see what actually happened. Rajob Ali,
HasibulRaihan and other team members of APOSH, met the consultant of surgery department and
explained his condition. They also informed him about Harm Reduction Programmefor PWID and how
APOSH is contributing in changing spectrum of drug users’ life in general. After a long discussion, the ice
started to melt and he suggested to go for skin grafting for Nur Islam.

Every medical college hospital has its own bureaucracy of rule in seeking treatment. Long queues for
seeing doctors, seeking diagnostic test, finding a schedule for operation and other associate works are
exhaustive and cumbersome. Rajob Ali, withstood every steps with Nur Islam to ensure proper
treatment. After a 12 days of struggle and hardship, Nur Islam finally got a successful skin grafting
operation. It was only possible when someone stringently and ardently sticks to aim of helping a fellow
human being. Rajob Ali made it possible because of the zeal he has for this community whom he has
been serving as a SACMO for years. “If I am not there, who else will be? They have been deprived of
basic rights for many years. They need us to seek their rights. Its exhaustive when we seek treatment
from government facilities but at the same time its fulfilling when see them cured.”Rajob Ali, A simple
man with high integrity, explained while discussing the entire of process of the Nur Islam’s treatment.

Nur Islam is recuperating with the help of his mother and APOSH family. He cannot wait to pull his
rickshaw again since he is the only earning member of his family. He is not surprised at all to see the
help of APOSH and Rajob Ali, as he explained, “Only people who treat us as human being are people
like Rajob Bhai and members of APSOH. I don’t want to thank them because they don’t do this for
getting thanks. They do it because they really care about us”.