Bullet entered Haadi’s right side and exited left: Health DG

The bullet entered Osman Haadi’s right side and exited through the left, said the Director General of Health Services, Md Abu Zafar.

He added that Haadi’s condition is critical. At the family’s decision, he has been taken to Evercare Hospital.

He said this while speaking to journalists at the garden gate of Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Friday evening.

Abu Zafar said that after surgery at Dhaka Medical College, Haadi was taken to Evercare Hospital based on the family’s decision. When he was brought to the hospital, his GCS was at the lowest level in the scale, which ranges from 3 to 15. With the doctors’ efforts, it has improved. He is now on artificial ventilation.

He further said that the condition of his brain showed that the bullet entered through the right side near the ear and exited through the left. In cases of bullet injury, the entry point is smaller, and the exit point creates a larger injury — which happened here. A brain injury causes swelling and increased pressure, which is extremely dangerous. To prevent this, the neurosurgeons, including Dr Zahid Raihan and his team, performed a decompressive procedure by widening the skull opening to avoid pressure build-up.

The health DG said some bleeding was occurring through the nose and throat, which the ENT specialists have managed. The government had initially decided to take him to the Combined Military Hospital, CMH, but the family preferred Evercare Hospital. After contacting Evercare, he was transferred there.

Earlier in the afternoon in Paltan’s Bijoynagar area, suspected assailants shot Sharif Osman Haadi, a prospective independent candidate for Dhaka-8 constituency and spokesperson of Inqilab Manch.

According to eyewitnesses and law enforcement sources, Haadi was travelling by rickshaw towards Bijoynagar when two helmeted assailants on a motorcycle approached and shot him in front of Baytus Salam Jame Mosque before speeding away.