The story of Laxmi Pariyar is one among many heart-rending stories encountered in the hospital every year. She is from a village called Siluwa, about 60 km away from hospital. She was admitted to the hospital at the end of November 2004 and was not discharged until the beginning of May 2005.

Laxmi Pariyar, a necrotising fasciitis patient

The story of Laxmi Pariyar is one among many heart-rending stories encountered in the hospital every year. She is from a village called Siluwa, about 60 km away from hospital. She was admitted to the hospital at the end of November 2004 and was not discharged until the beginning of May 2005.

Her mother and sister brought her to the hospital where she was diagnosed with necrotising fasciitis of the leg, and a chest infection. Necrotising fasciitis is an infection of the skin and underlying tissues which in her case had spread quite widely. Initially the doctors planned to amputate her leg due to the severity of the infection but managed to avoid doing this. Instead, she had to undergo eleven separate surgical procedures and prolonged intensive physiotherapy, backed up with a highly nutritious diet. Eventually her leg was saved. The total bill for her five month stay in the hospital was 165,538.00 rupees ($2,299).

Laxmi’s family Background:

Her husband was working in India. They have 3 children, 8 year old twin sons and another 7 year old son. They live in a remote village. It is impossible to cover the family finances with the meagre salary the husband earns in India, so they have to support the family by farming and stitching clothes in the village. They have a small piece of land in the village for farming.

It was beyond their capacity to pay the huge amount of expense even if they sold their house and piece of land. But somehow they managed to raise Rs.18, 000.00 ($250) to pay for her treatment. To be frank, this money was raised by asking people they knew to give gifts and loans. So the remaining 147,538.00 rupees ($2,049) was given as charity by the hospital, the largest single amount for the year. The patient and her carer did not even have money for their food. That’s why 16,644.00 rupees ($231) was given for food expenses alone, which Pastoral Care arranged for them.

In this way, Pastoral Care provided help to Laxmi in every way possible. If she had not been given financial, mental and emotional support, most probably she wouldn’t have experienced new life. We give the glory to our living God and extend warm thanks to all our prayer partners. We as the hospital family, especially in the Pastoral Care Department, rely on your continued prayer and financial support in days to come as well. Finally we express our gratitude through this article to our friends who are joining hands with us in the work we do here.