BAJURA, JULY 28

The 51-year-old Bal Luwar of Badimalika Municipality-1 of Bajura is struggling to survive after his treatment was put on hold due to a lack of funds.

Luwar, who requires heart surgery, has been left in the hospital bed at Bheri Hospital in Nepalgunj for the past seven days, unable to pay for his treatment.

His heart surgery has been postponed due to his inability to deposit the required hospital funds, according to a local Aashish Chadara.

Bajura district hospital had referred Luwar to Bheri Hospital one and a half weeks ago.

The surgery will cost at least Rs 70,000, and the hospital has requested that he and his family deposit Rs 45,000 immediately in order for the procedure for the surgery to proceed.

His wife, Bhidi Luwar, has been knocking on every door in Martadi, the district headquarter of Bajura, in an attempt to raise the necessary funds for the surgery, but has so far been unsuccessful. She has approached several state agencies, including the Badimalika Municipality, for financial assistance, but to no avail.

We were able to transport him to Nepalgunj after obtaining a loan from the village cooperative; it has now been seven days, but we will lose him due to a lack of financial support, lamented Bhidi. She went on to say that the loan was only enough to get him to Nepalgunj.

The Luwar family is classified as a 'Ka' category financially deprived family. Luwar provided food for the family of five by working every day. However, after he became ill, bringing food to the table became increasingly difficult, according to Bhidi.

'The municipality only offered hope, not financial assistance,' the family added.

The crops harvested from the family's land barely last a month, and the family's only asset is a straw thatched house.