I was born in Patihani villages of Chitwan District, Nepal in August 22, 1971.  Being the youngest child, I do remember being raised with lots of love and affection by my family.  When I entered my youth (age of 16), I suffered from a heart disease, which devastated my dreams and wishes.  I had tonsillitis and fever occasionally which I used to treat traditionally by gargling with salt water, taking painkillers and Cetamol which did gave me relief but then the tonsillitis keptreoccurring.Since we did not have the knowledge this traditional treatment of gargling, Cetamol and painkiller would not cure tonsillitisbut would lead to heart disease, we kept repeating the same treatment again and again which would give me relief for the time being.

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At the age of 16, I had a severe back pain. It was then the doctor found out about my heart disease and referred me to cardiologist. Through several checkups and echocardiography testing (ECG) I was diagnosed to have Rheumatic heart Disease. I was told that I had to have an open-heart surgery.  The hardship of life began after that. I did not have a slightest hint about Rheumatic Heart Disease nor did my family.  Nobody had even heard about relationship of tonsillitis with Rheumatic heart disease.  When doctor informed my parents about their daughter having rheumatic heart disease and needing a heart operation, I felt as if my ground underneath fell down.  I was just in my youth, I too had dreams like all the others to know about the cultures and prepare to get married but my life changed. I had a serious heart problem. My disease gave my family a lot of psychological burden and to worsen itwas my poor financial condition.  In the far village, girl’s life is hardly given any emphasis, so no one helped my family for my treatment.  For the family, who is dependent in the farming as their sole source of income, it was not at all easy.  My family could hardly afford thetreatment.  It would have been less costly, if the service was available in Nepal, but unfortunately at that time, there were no heart hospitals in Nepal.  So I could not perform the surgery instantly. No relatives of mine were ready to help me,I was really frustrated with my situation and felt really helpless.  I met Dr. Prakash Raj Regmi during my treatment phase in Chitwan and he motivated me and told me that I could get second life if I could get heart operation from India.  Though there was no support from anywhere my father stood up and said that he would do whatever it took to save his daughter’s life. It took usalmost 5 years to finally arrange finance and to get along with treatment in India as per Dr. Regmi’s Suggestion.  My father sold his paddy field for that.  Then in 1992, I went to India for treatment.  I went to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Ansari Nagar, New Delhi, India for treatment.  They only repaired my mitral valve and informed me that I would need to replace the valves after 8-9 years.  It was a new life for me but I had lot of challenges ahead after that operation.  I was a lady who was supposed to get married and look after husband’s family at that age, for which I had to be healthy, but unfortunately I was not.  I could not do the hard work, so I got frustrated again.  After that operation, I was continuously in touch with the cardiologist.  During the treatment period, Dr. Prakash Raj Regmiintroduced me Nepal Heart Foundation, Chitwan branch and inspired me that I could use my life to help other and prevent others from suffering from RHD.

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I became life member to that branch in 1994 with a will to support the heart patient.  After I joint the heart foundation, I had a positive impact in my life.  Before I used to see only my pain and sorrows, now I have started to see other’s pain and have realized that there are people who have worse conditions than mine.  Then I took an oath that I would spend second life in supporting other RHD patient and help them prevent from getting RHD.  Then I became active in the programs held by that organization which included raising public awareness regarding RHD, spreading messages about importance to treat the throat infection by antibiotics, screening of student throat for tonsillitis/pharyngitis along with doctors and making people aware about non-communicable disease as well.  I continued my service in the Foundation as a joint secretary from 1997 to 1999 and then served as secretary from 1999-2000.  During that period, I actively participated in raising public awareness regarding RHD, providing psychological support to the heart patient and acted as source of motivator to those who were depressed due to heart disease.  During that period, we screened almost all the students of all the schools of Chitwan distract and raised awareness among students, teachers and guardians and local community people.  After my mitral valve repair, I continued my study and took a training of cardiac technician provided by Lalitpur Heart Clinic in 1997 in Kathmandu of three months.

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In year 2000, I had to revisit to the AIIMS hospital in New Delhi, India. At the same time, my father developed a bone cancer. It was not easy for me financially and emotionally. My family was in the situation where they would loose two members.My father sold another piece of paddy field for my treatment.  I had a successful surgery of mitral valve replacement in 2000.  Then I came back to Nepal.Few days later my father passed away.  My family’s situation worsened even more.  My family could no longer support me soI had to support myself.  I was constantly on warfarin to thin my blood and had to continuously do PT/INR testing to know status of my blood.  This service was not available in Chitwan,so Icameto Kathmandu in 2002.

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I had a great desire to help the heart patients so I linked myself with the Nepal Heart Foundation Central Office and started to help the heart patient.  To support my life, I started to work as a Cardiac Technician in Nepal Heart Clinic as a part-timer. ShahidGangalal National Hospital,the only heart hospital in Nepal,wasestablished at around same time with the effort of Nepal Heart Foundation.There I got an opportunity to volunteer, in running a contact office of Nepal Heart Foundation, as a motivator.  I used to work in Nepal Heart Clinic till 10 in the morning for my financial support and then I would spend my rest of my day as volunteer in ShahidGangalal National Hospital, Bansbari.  There I would counsel the patient, share my story, identify the needy patient and support them with available fund from Nepal Heart Foundation and also guide them to another fund available places, provide them with support in ongoing care at hospital depending on different administrative jobs and advocating of the patient.  At the time,havingundergone two open heart surgery, was not considered normal, so my story, my passion for helping heart patient, my strength to fight with adversity became a motivating factor for other patients.  My story was even covered in National television channel, Nepal Television’s program “Sangharsa” which is run by popular journalist, Ms. AratiChataut.  She presented my story to all the people and my volunteering work, which I had been doing for benefit of heart patient.  My story was also published in yearly magazine of the Nepal Heart Foundation as a motivational and awareness storyto the people about the Rheumatic Heart Disease.

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Despite the adversity and lots of obstacles, I have helped other patient from getting RHD by means of counselling, psychological support, limited available financial support. I have been doing this for about 22 years and I will be continuously doing these things in future as well.