Karuna Adhikari, a four year-old kid, has to visit Kanti Children Hospital every day to undergo physiotherapy to keep her left hand and shoulder in their natural position. [break]
She has to put her arms on a support during the daytime. She complains of tingling sensation in her leg while walking and sits down abruptly at frequent intervals.
"She cannot sleep well and spends night wriggling in bed, complaining tingling sensations and crying in pain," her mother Surya Kumari said adding, "We have to massage her body three to four times each night to make her sleep."
The main nerve that connects left hand to the brain had severed at the time of her birth and that has affected the growth of muscles in her arm making it infirm.
Suryakumari, her 38 year-old mother, rushes to hospital every morning so that the child is attended early. However, the child often has to wait for her turn as public transport has its own disadvantages. The microbuses are packed during office time and the crowd compounds Karuna´s agony. She has to wait hours for physiotherapy which helps to bring left arm and shoulder back in place.
"I have to spend Rs 3,000 per month. I have no idea how long I can afford it," Suryakumari said. The doctors have told her the child needs a major operation that will cost more than a million rupees. "It is beyond my means. I cannot afford such costly surgery. I have already sold everything I had, including my property, for her treatment," she said.
But she has to continue to take her daughter for physiotherapy. After the therapy, she sends her to school. Karuna´s left shoulder sometimes gets dislocated when she lifts her school bag.
The daughter and her mother have been made to suffer because a doctor used a wrong technique during the child´s birth. "He conducted vacuum assisted delivery despite other doctors deciding to perform caesarian," Suryakumari said. The doctor used vacuum more than six times and the pressure it created broke her nerve, she said.
Karuna measured 4.5 kilograms while she was in her mother´s womb. Doctors at the Police Hospital, therefore, declared that Suryakumari would not have normal delivery. They referred her to the Maternity Hospital for caesarian. The doctors at the Maternity Hospital also said she had to undergo caesarian. The ultrasound showed that the child indeed weighed 4.5 kilograms.
"They (doctors at Maternity Hospital) had planned to conduct caesarian but Dr Achala Baidhya took a last minute decision to conduct the birth with the assistance of vacuum," she accused. She said she was taken to the labor room, from the operation theatre, for normal delivery. "Their repeated attempts failed, and the vacuum was used six times," she said.
The mother´s body swelled after giving birth to the child and she was referred to the Norvic International Hospital where she had to be admitted into Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
The Maternity Hospital initially admitted lapses and promised to bear all expenses for the treatment of the mother. But later, when the hospital learnt about the baby´s severed nerve, they refused to provide free treatment.
After the hospital denied free treatment, Adhikari lodged a complaint against the doctors at the District Administration Office (DAO). The DAO gave verdict in her favor and asked the doctors to provide Rs 1 million in compensation to the victim. But the doctors filed a case against the decision of the DAO at the Patan Appellate Court. The appellate court sent back the case to the DAO, but she is yet to get a verdict.
She is hopeful that she would get compensation so that she can afford a surgery for her child.
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