Lovlu Ansar
bdnews24.co New York Correspondent

New York, June 13 (bdnews24.com)—Popular writer Humayun Ahmed has had a successful surgery in the third and final cycle for his colon cancer treatment in New York.

The head of Oncology Department of Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital Dr Jasmine Zain and cancer surgeon Dr George Miller conducted the six-and-a-half-hour long surgery that begun at 8pm Bdst on Tuesday.

After the surgery, Doctor Miller said the operation was successful. "We hope he will recover very soon."

"The surgery took much time as the situation was critical. There was a tumour in his liver too. It was taken out too," he said.

Muktodhara Publications Ltd's Bishwajit Saha and expatriate Bangladeshi writer Gazi A Kashem, present at the hospital, told bdnews24.com that Humayun regained consciousness around two and a half hours after the surgery.

He spoke with his wife Meher Afroz Shaon and those at his beside including writer Jyotiprokash Datta, his childhood friend Nuruzzaman Mandal, Ruma Saha, Anyaprokash Publications Ltd CEO Mazharul Islam.

The doctors at the Bellevue Hospital said the celebrated writer and playwright will be kept under observation there for at least one more week.

He will also have to go through several types of therapy before he is discharged from the hospital.

Biswajit said Shaon requested everybody to pray for his fast recovery.

Humayun, also a renowned filmmaker, went to New York on Sep 13 last year after he was diagnosed with colon cancer during a routine check-up in Singapore.

He took treatment at the Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Centre (MSKCC), a cancer treatment and research institution in New York.

Doctors treating the writer had decided last month to operate on his colon as he has already taken 12 chemo-therapies to contain the spread of cancer.

Born in Mymensingh in 1948, Humayun did his graduation from Dhaka University and later joined the university as a lecturer of chemistry but retired to become a fulltime writer and filmmaker.

Winner of prestigious Bangla Academy Award in 1981, Ekushey Padak in 1994 and three National Film Awards (Best Story in 1993, Best Film 1994 and Best Dialogue in 1994), Humayun continued writing while he is in New York taking treatment.

On Jan 13, the government made the 63-year-old writer senior special adviser to the Bangladesh Mission at the United Nations in New York.

Last month he had come to the country on a 20-day-visit to spend time with his friends and relatives before the surgery on his colon.

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