”I haven't been able to get my husband treated because I don't have money,” she said. ”I'm still tormented by the thought that maybe he could have been saved if he had received treatment.”
We use Google Cloud Translation Services. Google requires we provide the following disclaimer relating to use of this service:
This service may contain translations powered by Google. Google disclaims all warranties related to the translations, expressed or implied, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability, and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and noninfringement.
Life is full of both happiness and sorrow. Some people only have sorrow. ‘I have had more sorrow than happiness,’ said Tulsara Khadka, 38, of Botechaur, Gurbhakot Municipality-9, Surkhet. ‘This is my fate.’ She has to work hard to earn two meals a day. She also has to raise money for her husband, who is suffering from cancer. Right now, she is more concerned about saving her husband’s life than satisfying his hunger.
She does not have a regular income, and she does not earn a penny without doing daily chores. That is why Tulsara is driving an auto rickshaw. She started driving an auto since last Asoj to raise money for the treatment of her husband, Ammar Bahadur, who is suffering from bone marrow cancer. Ammar had gone to Saudi Arabia for foreign employment to earn money for his wife and children. The idea was to earn money there and send it home.
He returned home after becoming ill two years ago. Initially, he was diagnosed with ‘blood cancer’. Two or four patients brought from abroad were cured after seven months of treatment at the Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu. After receiving treatment there, his health improved slightly.
After resting at home and not earning any money, Ammar Bahadur bought an auto rickshaw in 2081 Mangsir on the advice of a doctor, spending 7.5 lakh rupees. He also avoided the family’s troubles by driving an auto for some time. He fell ill within four months of starting to drive an auto. Then Tulsara, who was at home, started driving the auto.
When her husband’s health was checked, he had bone marrow cancer along with blood cancer. Doctors have said that he will be cured only after a bone marrow transplant. ‘Where will we get the 6 million rupees needed for bone marrow transplant,’ she said, ‘we left the treatment and returned home because we couldn’t raise the money.’
The money collected by the villagers, the expenses from insurance and the earnings from foreign employment, along with the 3 million rupees we got from selling 10 kaththas of land in Bardiya, were spent.’ She said that more than 5 million rupees have been spent so far. She says that instead of getting better, the disease has worsened.
She has not been able to take her husband for regular follow-up for four months due to financial constraints. Earlier, she used to take him to Sushil Koirala Cancer Hospital in Banke for ‘chemotherapy.’ She said that now that too has stopped. ‘A single treatment cost around 100,000 rupees,’ she said, ‘now it is no longer possible.’
She said that after her husband passed away, the responsibility of running the house fell on her shoulders. She said that she did not lose courage even though she became mentally weak. She says that she had the courage to drive after learning how to drive an auto for 15 days from a woman in her neighborhood.
‘Initially, I had thought of selling the auto,’ she said, ‘When my neighbor told me to drive it for a living, I gathered courage, and with the earnings from it, I got my husband’s treatment.’ She earns up to 1,000 rupees daily by driving an auto. She earns 10-15 thousand rupees a month. This is just enough to meet the household expenses. She said that it is difficult to meet the expenses of her husband’s treatment. After all her assets were spent on her husband’s treatment, her two sons, aged 16 and 19, have left school and gone to India for employment.
They are working in a hotel and sending money home. "I haven't been able to get my husband treated because I don't have money," she said. "I'm still tormented by the thought that maybe he could have been saved if he had received treatment."
