Bunu Tharu
Kathmandu, Sept 30: Narayan Prasad Rimal is lost at thoughts at the National Trauma Centre’s Emergency Ward.
The eyes of 68-year-old elderly are looking out for someone as he undergoes treatment at the centre. There are no places in his body that are not injured.
The right side of his body seems to sustain most damages. What is more painful to this elderly is separation from his wife in the landslide rather than the bruises in his body.
Wearing a long face, Rimal recalled the harrowing story, “I survived but my wife, who was cooking, was buried in the landslide. The dozer is yet to reach her for rescue.”
How can one become oblivious of one’s spouse in such a moment of despair emanated from destruction of the recent rain-triggered disasters?
Rimal has his right ribs broken in a landslide on last Saturday and is waiting for the surgery scheduled for coming Tuesday. A resident of Chauri Deurali rural municipality-6 in Kavrepalanchowk district, he recalls the fateful Saturday with remorse and a tinge of sadness.
He does not remember the exact time when the landslide fell upon his house. “But it must be around 11:00 am when my wife Pabitra was preparing meal while I was sitting in the balcony of my house. The incessant rainfall since last Thursday did not bode well. Suddenly, the landslide fall down on my house and buried my wife in front of my eyes,” lamented the elderly.
According to him, he pleaded for rescue for two agonizing hours since the disaster but to no avail. He cried for help helplessly until he lost his consciousness and found himself in bed no 21 of the ward when he regained his consciousness after four hours.
Never did Rimal, airlifted to Kathmandu on Sunday afternoon, imagine that he would lose his house to landslide like a pack of cards. With a lump in his throat, he whined, “The house was built in 2046 BS. This time it suffered a fateful incident.”
Thirty-year-old Sujan Basnet is another patient undergoing treatment at the same place. It rained torrentially on last Saturday. A driver by profession, Basnet was swept away by the landslide debris on last Saturday itself when he was about to reach the road to pull his vehicle aside.
Basnet, a resident of Pharping in Kathmandu district, was immediately rescued and rushed to the nearest hospital. Later on Sunday noon, his wife Sita brought him to Trauma Centre for further treatment. He has suffered injuries on hands, legs, neck and ribs.
So far, 15 disaster survivors including Rimal and Basnet have been treated in the Trauma Centre. Among them, six have been discharged after receiving medical care.
According to Indira Pandey, Focal Person of the Disaster Management at the Trauma Centre, the survivors treated at the Centre are primarily from Dhading, Kathmandu, Ramechhap, Dolakha and Kavrepalanchowk.
“Almost of the injured ones have been ‘complicated cases’. Some are ‘referral cases’ too,” noted Pandey, adding that one survivor has already undergone surgery while three more are scheduled for operations.
Likewise, only one injury case has been treated in the country’s oldest Hospital Bir Hospital, reported Dr Suresh Nepal, Chief of Emergency Department in the Hospital.
Meanwhile, at another oldest public health facility-Patan Hospital- in Laliitpur, 10 flood and landslide survivors have been treated since last Friday.
Among then, seven were rescued from landslide and three from floods, said Dr Rabi Shakya, Director of the Hospital. According to him, nine patients have been discharged while one remains hospitalized.
Like Rimal and Basnet, there are altogether 89 disaster survivors who are currently receiving treatment at various healthcare facilities across the country, as per the statistics provided by the Armed Police Force.
The Ministry of Health and Population has instructed all the healthcare centres to provide treatment to the rescued patients for free of cost and urged the health facilities to ensure that the emergency services are available round-the-clock. #RSS #nepal #disaster #monsoon
