“I know I am not a football player so artificial limbs would do just
fine. Only then I could walk with ease,” said Rojina Shrestha, who
braved cancer but at the cost of her leg. The 16-year-old girl had her
left leg amputated 20 days ago.
A 10th grader at Kalyan Boarding School in Lalitpur, Rojina was on top
form in her school, scoring 94 percent last year in her first term
exams. She was busy solving an equation of Optional Mathematics when
this Post scribe reached her rented room in New Delhi near Rohini
Hospital.
Rojina’s miseries started a year ago when she was diagnosed with cancer after a biopsy at Bir Hospital. After going through four chemotherapy sessions at B&B Hospital, her father Narayan Prasad Shrestha brought her to New Delhi for an operation. After a successful operation and six chemo sessions, they had returned home. But as fate would have it, when they came back after a month for a follow-up at the hospital, thinking all was well, they were informed that the leg had to be amputated.
Narayan Prasad, a non-gazetted government officer, has already spent around Rs 2 million on her treatment, taking loans from various sources. With a meagre salary of Rs 14,000 a month, Shrestha is knee-deep in debt. The cost of an artificial reaches up to Rs 1.5 million. “I would be happy if I could get some help to provide her with a quality artificial limb,” said Shrestha.
Rojina, who had interest in poetry since early childhood, had learnt the lesson of self-confidence after reading “Jiwan Kanda Ki Phool” by Jhamak Ghimire and the biographies of Helen Keller to Florence Nightangle, to name a few.
With the added responsibility of two other sons, Narayan Prasad’s only wish is to fulfill Rojina’s dream of becoming a doctor.
Source : E-Kantipur , 4th September 2013
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