Sushmita's Story

I am now happy, confident, and independent!



Sumitra is the eldest of three siblings from a rural family in Western Nepal. Her parents are subsistence farmers. She was born with scoliosis, a deformity of her back, which progressively worsened over the years due to lack of treatment. At one point she stopped going to school because she felt very self-conscious, and was often poked fun at. Her parents were worried that there was no prospect for her to get married and have a family. She learnt about HRDC’s spine program from one of our field workers visiting her village, and wasted no time to enroll for much needed treatment. Spine surgery is often a very complicated and expensive affair, often beyond the reach of many families who live on a meagre budget! Such children are the very target of our spine program: a world-class team led by senior anesthesiologists and three fellowship-trained spine surgeons delivering high-quality care in a safe environment that includes state-of-the-art operating room with modern anesthesia machines, neuromonitoring during surgery to improve safety, and an in-house lab that manufactures spinal braces amongst other prosthetics and orthotic devices. After treatment at HRDC, Sumitra’s life changed dramatically. She finished school and was able to secure a job in the land revenue department of the government. She is now a happy, confident, and independent young woman, with a bright future ahead of her, thanks to HRDC’s intervention!