A severely injured Bhatta was pulled out from the debris of his destroyed home and rushed to the district hospital first and later to the capital after his condition got worse.
It turned out that he had sustained spinal cord injury, in which nerve cells in the spine get damaged.Bhatta was later referred to Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Center in Sanga, Bhaktapur district. The injury has left him paralyzed and he now depends on wheelchair for mobility.
Doctors at the center asked Bhatta's family to approach Physical Rehabilitation Center run by National Disable Fund (NDF) under the Ministry of Women Children and Social Welfare (MoWCSW) for a free wheelchair.
However, the NDF provided an emergency wheelchair to Bhatta's family as it lacked a durable wheelchair.
"The emergency wheelchair is only for temporary use as it does not last long. It becomes unusable in one to two months," Min Prasad Gurung, orthotics prosthetics at the fund, said. He informed that the NDF lacks durable wheelchair and parts of prosthetic limbs. "We do not have raw materials to make the limbs of the upper nee part," he added
Like Bhatta, hundreds of others have been injured in the earthquake, all of whom need wheelchairs and other materials for support for mobility.
The NDF claimed that over 5,000 people have suffered some form of disability in the devastating quake. Among them, over 300 sustained spinal cord injuries and 170 are amputated.
"All the people with spinal cord injury need a long-lasting wheelchair, toilet chair and other equipment of mobility," said Nitesh Kumar Gupta, secretary at the NDF.
He informed that most of the quake victims who need prosthetic limbs are yet to visit the NDF as it takes three to six months to become ready for artificial limbs.
Gupta informed that the ministry has provided Rs two million to create an emergency fund for earthquake-disabled people but the amount is insufficient to buy as many prosthetic parts and wheelchairs as is required.
The NDF informed that 3,800 wheelchairs already in use by disabled people were also damaged in the quake. "They too need wheelchair. In addition, many visually impaired people have lost their canes," said Dr Ashoak Poudel of the NDF's Physical Rehabilitation Center.
According to Dr Poudel, a normal wheelchair costs about Rs 40,000, so the amount provided by the government is paltry compared to the rising demands.
Secretary Gupta said that the NDF needs substantial aid from the government as well as donor agencies that support people having disability.
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