INF helps Ram

Ram Kumar Nav, 50, is from Nepal's Kapilvastu District. It took 12 days to get him to INF's Green Pastures Hospital and Rehabilitation Centre in Pokhara, partly because he had to be carried, and partly because he was so ill that he could only bear so much travelling each day.

Three years ago he was diagnosed with leprosy but continued to earn money in his barber's shop, working with his two sons. However, he developed an ulcer in his insensitive foot which became badly infected.

On arrival at Green Pastures he was very thin and his leg was very swollen. The only option was below-knee amputation but he was so ill that it took a few weeks before he was fit for surgery.

'Ram is delighted that he has survived despite being on the brink of death when he first arrived,' says Green Pastures Superintendent Sandra Boone. 'He will stay until he is ready to have an artificial limb fitted and learns how to walk again. He has a deformity of his hand, 'claw hand', which has made it difficult for him to work as a barber. We plan to do reconstructive surgery for this too. While leprosy is on the decline in Nepal, Green Pastures is as busy as ever and the physical, psychological and social toll of the disease on people like Ram is immense.'

Please click here to help INF help people with leprosy and other disabilities like Ram.

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