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Dead man talking: Bullet in head, paralysed teacher seeks compensation
KATHMANDU, NOV 28 - Many would call Krishna Raj Yogi, 32, a lucky man. Others have nicknamed him as ‘a dead man talking’.
Two months after being shot by Maoists on his head at point blank range that sent him into a state of comma for the next 19 days, Yogi is miraculously alive and can even talk a little, despite a bullet lodged precariously inside his skull.
However, for Yogi, paralysis of the left half of his body, the cost of an apparently never-ending medical treatment, and according to him, the ‘radical apathy’ from the government to provide relief fund, have made things extremely tough.
"Airfare for the three of us from Bardiya to Kathmandu, and Rs.5,000 in cash is all the Home Ministry provided us," said the former teacher, clearly struggling to get the right words. On the other hand, his elder brother Suresh estimates that around Rs.200,000 has already been spent on Yogi’s treatment.
The government, through Cabinet decision, distributes over Rs.100 million annually as assistance to politicians, bureaucrats and commoners.
Showing the bullet in his head on a CT-Scan report, in Room 201 of the Male Surgical Ward of the Teaching Hospital on Thursday, Yogi expressed his worries to The Kathmandu Post about the future of his despairing wife Hema, son Suwarna, 8, and daughter Hiju, 5.
The misfortune struck on September 21 immediately after the three-day strike called by the Maoists from September 18 to 20. Yogi left his brothers’ rented house in Gulariya for Nepal National Secondary School in Dhodhari VDC-1, Bardiya, where he had been teaching for eight years.
His elder brother had been living at Gulariya eversince the police post in Bhagraiya VDC-9, from where the Yogis hail, was evacuated fearing a Maoist attack.
During a tea break at the school, five Maoists, including a woman, entered the teachers’ room where many schoolteachers were exchanging pleasantries.
"They demanded that we provide them with 10 percent of our salary, including that of the previous year," said Yogi.
Upon resisting, two of the visitors asked Yogi to go with them to discuss ‘something important’. They took him to a nearby garden, belonging to Raghav Bahadur Singh, told him to kneel down, discussed something incomprehensible among themselves, and shot him on his head.
After emergency treatment at the Bheri Zonal Hospital in Nepalgunj, the doctors there declared the case beyond their capacity, and told the Yogi family to immediately take Yogi to a better-equipped hospital. He was taken to the George Medical College in Lucknow, where, after 26 days and over Rs.125,000, the doctors discharged Yogi, with the bullet still lodged in his head.
"They decided that extracting the bullet from inside the head was too risky," said wife Hema. Yogi was brought to Kathmandu’s Teaching Hospital 20 days ago.
Though Dr. Ishwor Lohani has cured Yogi of his bedsores due to his prolonged supine life, medical professionals at the hospital left the bullet untouched. Yogi will be discharged after four days to face an uncertain future.
"Some doctors told us that people with bullets in their heads have been living since the Second World War," said Yogi. "I might manage as well, but what about my family? Who will provide for them?"
The Yogi family owns an ancestral plot and a house at Bhagraiya, which they deserted after the calamitous incident. They are too scared to return there.
"Even if we do, making both ends meet would be impossible, with our bread earner paralysed and medical expenses that will continue to pile up," said Suresh.
When Suresh claimed full compensation for the expenses, Home Ministry officials told him that the government does not compensate for the expenses incurred for treatment in a foreign country.
Home Ministry spokesperson Gopendra Bahadur Pandey gave a similar answer to The Kathmandu Post.
"They should have taken him to a government hospital, and not an expensive hospital in India. Still, we will look into the matter if they file an application with us," he said.Posted on: 2003-11-27 10:26
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