Kathmandu, March 16

When are we returning to Sunpur? Pushpa Budhathoki, 7, frequently asks her mother Leela on the fourth floor of a hospital building in Kathmandu, where they have been languishing for the last seven months.

The lower kindergarten drop-out wants to rejoin school in Dang, a mid-western district her family hails from. But, Leela has no answer.

The mother of four can’t leave the government-run National Trauma Centre, a subsidiary of Bir Hospital, as she needs to take care of her bedridden husband Amar.

Amar, 36, from Sunpur tole of Laxmipur VDC had arrived in Kathmandu to work as a labourer on July 8, cannot walk as doctors say he got his proximal radius and tibial plateau fractured while dismantling a quake-ravaged building in Thamel nearly three months after the devastating April earthquake, which killed nearly 9,000 people and left over 20,000 with spinal injuries.

Collapse of a six-storey building had nearly killed him while clearing the ruins, Amar, who has already undergone suprapubic catheterisation, recounted. “But, I don’t know what happened as I was rushed to Intensive Care Unit for treatment.”

After receiving treatment for five months at ICU and Post Operative Ward, he was supposed to start next course of therapy and physical exercise as the doctors referred him to Bhaktapur-based Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Center.

“It’s already been three months since I have been waiting to move to SIRC after getting discharged from NTC,” he said, “The vulnerable building left me with a physical disability but these days, I’m dying each and every moment.”

According to him, the only bread earner of the poverty-stricken family has been compelled to stay in the hospital as he can’t leave bed number 406 without clearing hospital bills. “Amar so far owes Rs 48,000 to NTC as per the record at the administration section of the hospital.

The hospital charges Rs 200 for a bed daily. As per the rule, Amar who was officially discharged from the hospital on January 12, can be allowed to leave the bed only after he clears the due amount.

Leela said she arrived in Kathmandu on July 29 with Pushpa and a year-old Sova for Amar’s treatment. “We have already borrowed more than Rs 100,000 for his treatment,” the lactating mother informed, adding they were now unable to arrange more money. “Being stuck here for over two months now, we now feel like living in a jail.”

The family thinks Krishna Surkheti of Gorkha needs to foot the hospital bill as he employed Amar and others to demolish the building. “He (Surkheti) promised to pay us Rs 2,200 per day but he fled without even paying us wage of 21 days,” Amar said, adding that Surkheti had deposited Rs 8,000 in the first month but never returned.

Acting on a complaint filed at Sorakhutte Police Station, police have intensified a search for Surkheti, who is still at large.

Following the incident, five others who came with him returned to Dang next day refusing to dismantle the quake ravaged building, he shared.

“Seriously, I am not worried about my daughter’s question. My sons Govind (fifth grader) and Samir (third grader) have also stopped going to school. All I want is a new life out of this hospital,” said Leela.