Julie Lincoln, MD.

Twenty-year-old Shiva came to us from a remote village in Dang. She was breathless, malnourished, weak, unable to stand or sit easily by herself, and her abdomen was huge—distended by fluid. Her story was sad. Born into poverty, her father had died when she was young and her mother had struggled to feed and clothe the family—educating the children was not possible. Shiva had developed abdominal tuberculosis (TB) as a child, and several years of treatment from our Ghorahi clinic were needed to completely cure her.

Now, many years later, Shiva returned, hoping we could help her again. We listened to her story. She had married young to a neighbouring villager, but after struggling to live with no good income prospects in the village, they moved to Kathmandu city hoping for a better life. They both found work as labourers in a brick factory, carrying and loading bricks all day amidst the clouds of brick dust and smoke. Shiva enjoyed living in Kathmandu, but after a year she became sick again and was unable to work.

Initially her husband treated her well, but then he became angry when she couldn’t work. He abused her—told her he would do nothing for her, couldn’t live with her, and he brought another ’wife’ in to replace her. He repeatedly threatened to kill Shiva if she didn’t leave him and she felt even more frightened and helpless. As a woman—ill, illiterate, and with no one to stand up for her—there was nothing she could do. After pleading and begging she managed to scrape together enough money to return to her mother in Dang, who brought her to our clinic. We assessed her and provided funds for her to travel to the nearest centre where treatment was available. Also since her return, we have continued to treat her for free. She is now much more comfortable and a lot happier.

Post Treatment

Her husband will not take her back, so Shiva is living with her mother and is strong enough again to do her share in helping support the family. We see many patients like Shiva in our clinic ... most with sad stories and several with very advanced disease. It is a privilege to be able to treat, cure, or if cure is not possible, give symptomatic relief to as many as we can.

Pray

• That Dr. Julie and the other clinic staff will have wisdom as they treat people with difficult medical issues and family situations.
• That each patient will know that God loves them through the staff.
• Pray that God will provide adequate supplies and funding so that they can help everyone who comes.

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