Bangladeshi boy who got hit by car in Abu Dhabi dies after three years in coma

Abu Dhabi: A Bangladeshi boy who had been left comatose by a traffic accident died this month after three years and two months of hospitalisation.

Abtahi Siddiuque was 17 years old, and according to his mother, Shakila Nasrin, he had been having problems with his blood circulation in the week before his death.

“He was hit by a car on April 18, 2017, and had been in hospital ever since. The doctors alerted me that his condition was on the decline. So I had gone to see him twice this week before he passed away,” Nasrin, a 34-year-old homemaker, told Gulf News.

“My son was never able to communicate since the accident. He has finally been relieved of his suffering and pain,” she added.

Unfortunately, Abtahi's father was unable to bid a final goodbye to his son as he is stranded in Bangladesh amid travel restrictions over the coronavirus pandemic. The teenager was buried in Abu Dhabi’s Bani Yas graveyard last week, where his mother visits him every other day.

In 2017, Abtahi was on his way to a friend’s house to work on a school assignment. He was hit by a speeding car while he was crossing the road at a pedestrian crossing in the capital’s Musaffah suburb. He was rushed to the hospital. His mother said he had undergone multiple surgeries to his brain over the past two years.

As he lay on his hospital bed connected to multiple tubes, Abtahi's eyes would remain open, but Nasrin said it was difficult to tell if he was aware of anything.

“We could sometimes tell that he was uncomfortable because he would clench his fists. But there was no other way to understand what he was going through,” she said.

Abtahi's parents would visit him at the hospital every other day, sitting with him for hours on end and praying for his recovery. Prior to the accident, the teenager was a Grade 9 student at a private school and always brought home good grades.

Earlier this month, Nasrin said she was informed by the doctors that her first-born son was not doing well.

“Fluid would collect around his brain, and surgeries were performed to drain it. But in his final days, there was swelling around it as well. Along with circulatory problems, he had also stopped passing urine, and there were no bowel movements,” Nasrin said.

Abtahi died on June 11 and was laid to rest a few days later. He is survived by his parents, and a 12-year-old brother.

The family now needs to pay off hospital bills that have run into millions.

“We are waiting for a decision by the court on the final amount that we have to pay, and we will then settle it,” Nasrin said.