Fifteen-year-old Rakesh Bohara is a standard 7 student at Bal Mandir Basic School in Chainpur. A permanent resident of Dogadhi village in Surma Rural Municipality Ward-2, Rakesh suffers from severe chest pain while walking up any slope. “When I run or carry anything heavy, I feel like there are needles in my heart. Even when I walk fast, I feel pain on the left side of my chest,” says Rakesh, who lives in a rented room in Chainpur, the upazila seat of Bajrang upazila.
Eight-year-old Bhuwan BK, who lives in Gogada village in the same district, is also a first-grade student at Balmandir Basic School. He wants to play with his friends but cannot. He often watches them play on the ground from a corner. “I want to play but when I run or walk fast I get out of breath and it becomes difficult to breathe,” laments Bhuwan.
Rakesh, Bhuwan and eight other students of Bal Mandir Basic School in Chainpur were diagnosed with heart problems during a health camp organised by the Nepal Heart Foundation at the school on June 7. Doctors recommended that Rakesh undergo immediate heart surgery and advised several other students to undergo further check-ups at better-equipped hospitals such as Kathmandu.
However, parents of sick students are not proactive in seeking treatment, with most of them not even receiving prescriptions for medicines from the school authorities.
“Doctors have warned that delay in treatment could worsen the condition and advised us to take the students to Kathmandu immediately. We have repeatedly informed the parents about the issue but so far no one has taken the sick students to the hospital,” said Tek Bahadur Singh, principal of the school. “The parents of four students suffering from serious heart conditions have not even received the prescriptions given by the doctors during the health camp.”
But parents shared their experiences, saying they had no money to take their children to a hospital in Kathmandu. “I received multiple calls from the school urging me to take my son to Kathmandu as soon as possible for treatment. The treatment costs between 50,000 and 60,000 rupees. We are desperately searching for a loan but can’t find one,” said Gajendra Bohara, Rakesh’s father.
Gajendra, who works as a daily wage labourer at the Nepal Power Corporation substation in Chainpur, said: “My meager income is barely enough to feed and educate my six children. I will take my son to the hospital once I have saved enough money for his treatment,” he lamented.
Bhuwan’s guardians are also facing similar financial difficulties in arranging for his medical treatment. “Bhuwan’s father has gone to Dhuli in Saipal Rural Municipality for work. We plan to take him to Kathmandu once we have saved up the money,” said Bhuwan’s grandfather Mohan BK.
The BK family has 12 members. Bhuwan’s mother is undergoing treatment for pinched nerves in her lower back. The impoverished family feels the boy is in urgent need of treatment but are yet to raise the necessary funds.
The Nepal Heart Foundation conducted health camps in two government schools in Bajrang, a remote area of Sudurpaschim district, in the second week of June. As many as 40 students were diagnosed with various heart diseases, said Mohan Shrestha, a cardiology technician from the foundation. “Eight of them need to undergo surgery immediately. The remaining patients need to take medicines and undergo annual medical check-ups,” Shrestha said.
“There are various reasons for heart diseases in children. If tonsillitis is not treated in time, it can lead to heart diseases. Poor nutrition during pregnancy is the main cause, as some children suffer from congenital heart defects. The incidence of congenital heart diseases is quite high in Bajan,” Shrestha said.
Heart disease among children is a major health issue not only in Bajrang but also in several districts of Sudurpaschim province, where health workers say the condition of patients in remote areas of the country worsens as they lack access to proper treatment.
“On the one hand, people lack health awareness. On the other hand, people in remote areas are not aware about the government benefits available to cardiac patients. The number of cardiac patients is on the rise in remote areas as medicines are not easily available locally,” said Prof Prakash Raj Regmi, cardiologist at Sahid Gangalal National Cardiac Centre, who examined the patients during Bhajan’s health camp.