Physical Health Nepal Project #17477

Surgery for Children with Disabilities in Nepal

by American Himalayan Foundation

Project Report | May 29, 2019
Suraj, the little engine that could

By Erica Stone | President

We first met Suraj in April when he was hobbling down a ramp at HRDC with help from a bamboo walker and his grandmother, Maya. He was struggling but looked fiercely determined. Maya told us this was the first time her nine-year-old grandson had ever walked.

Suraj was born with painfully twisted club feet, and as he grew, he could not walk or even stand. His mother left the family when he was two and his father abandoned him shortly after, leaving him in the care of his grandmother.

“I had to carry Suraj everywhere,” Maya said. “Even though he wanted to go to school, it was too difficult for me to take him. So he mostly sat at home.” For all of Suraj’s childhood, no one understood his disability. And, even if they did, his grandmother couldn’t have afforded the treatment for it. She works as a farmhand for just four dollars a day.

Then his life changed. Two years ago, a medical camp visited their village, saw Suraj, and referred him to HRDC. There, a series of operations on both of his feet finally made it possible for the young boy to walk. But he still had to learn how.

So, Suraj has spent the last few months at the hospital in intensive physical therapy; he had special shoes fabricated for him, then grabbed hold of the walker and just went for it. “He is tireless,” said Ganga, the head of PT. “Using the walker, or on the parallel bars, he doesn’t want to stop trying to walk. He gets this look on his face, purses his lips, and off he goes.”

“I love HRDC,” Suraj said. “The doctors and nurses care a lot about me, and I’ve made friends with a lot of other patients. I even started to go to school in the classroom here. When I go back to my village, I will be able to go to school for the first time. I really want to study, and I now hope to be a doctor when I grow up, like the doctors I meet here.”

With your help, Suraj’s dream came true and his grandmother’s prayers were answered. HRDC transformed Suraj’s life, and he is not alone. Dr. Banskota and his team find children whose bodies are broken, ease their pain, fix their bones, and give them a new life. 90,000 children healed and counting. And it can happen because of you.

Suraj learning to walk!

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Feb 25, 2019
Making friends at HRDC: Kapila's story

By Bruce Moore | Regional Field Director

Kapila is all smiles.

The doctor’s diagnosis was grim for six-year-old Kapila: her mother, Shanta, was told that she suffered from a hereditary condition and would probably not live past age 20. Broken-hearted, her family stopped seeking further diagnosis for Kapila, and the young girl stopped going to school. By age 12, she had lost the ability to walk entirely, leaving her to use her hands to slide on the floor to get around. However, Kapila was not the only one with a physical disability in her village. A glimmer of hope arrived when a woman whose child was treated by HRDC for clubfoot told Shanta about the hospital. Soon Shanta and Kapila were on a two-day journey to Banepa, just on the outskirts of Kathmandu, where HRDC is located.

“The original diagnosis was that she probably had muscular dystrophy, but I doubted that,” her doctor explained. “MD is unusual in girls, only about one in 50 million, and there were no symptoms in her upper body. Her mother told us she was sick with fever before the onset of her muscle problems, so we are thinking they were caused by polio.”

In the four months she has been at HRDC, Kapila has undergone two major operations to release the contractures in her hamstrings, then spent two months in skeletal traction before being treated with a month-long series of casts to stretch out her knees. After that, they can start work on her feet. Based on similar cases at HRDC, her doctor expects her to be able to walk with some support in about three more months, once her treatment is completed.

Despite a very difficult life, Kapila is always in high spirits. “She is always smiling and talks to everyone here,” the mother of another patient in a nearby bed said. “Everyone is her friend!”

“The doctors and nurses here are very loving,” Kapila says. “I have made so many new friends here too!”

It is thanks to your support and commitment that Kapila can receive treatment from HRDC, the premier pediatric orthopedic hospital in Nepal. Led by Dr. Ashok Banskota and his son, Dr. Bibek Banskota, they have given more than 80,000 children futures full of hope and possibility. Thank you for making this happen.

The skeletal traction that realigned her legs.

One of the casts she was in for a month.

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Oct 24, 2018
Everything is possible at HRDC: Saraswati's Story

By Bruce Moore | Regional Field Director

Being fitted for the braces that changed her life.

No matter where they live in the world, a child with a physical disability experiences struggles that many of us will never have to face. In Nepal, these difficulties are compounded by the country’s challenging terrain, scarcity of health clinics, and deep poverty. As a hospital dedicated to caring for children with disabilities, The Hospital and Rehabilitation Center for Disabled Children's (HRDC) medical team is committed to meeting each child’s unique needs to heal both body and mind. And this is exactly what happened for Shanta and her daughter Saraswati.

Just a year ago, it seemed Saraswati was destined for a life of hardship. Shanta’s husband passed away years ago, leaving her with five children to raise alone. As a widow without a permanent source of income, she struggles to find daily work and take care of her family’s needs. Saraswati’s disability was first noticed when she was a baby and had difficulty crawling. Later on, at school and in her village, children mocked her inability to walk normally. She felt anxious and ashamed. But her family’s poverty made treatment impossible.

When a local health worker learned of Saraswati’s situation, he referred her to HRDC. Hopeful, Shanta and Saraswati traveled to the main HRDC campus near Kathmandu. Saraswati was diagnosed with two conditions: the rare Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita, which causes multiple joint contractures affecting two or more areas of the body prior to birth, and bilateral clubfoot. She was admitted immediately, undergoing a successful surgical intervention and receiving corrective braces for both her feet. While at the hospital, Saraswati was able to continue her studies on site at the HRDC School.

Back in school, the now sixth grader walks and participates in ways she had only dreamed of. Motivated by her experience, she wants to become a social worker. “What has happened to me is nothing short of a miracle,” she says. “Everything is possible at HRDC,” she added, beaming with joy, a new-found confidence, and gratitude.

Thank you for helping HRDC transform the lives of more than 80,000 children so far. We are deeply grateful.

Saraswati in front of HRDC's main hospital.

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