Pramodh – challenging times for one of our staff
Those of you who receive our prayer letters will know about this man and may well have prayed for his healing and his family’s situation. Whilst I was there this June (2017) I was able to catch up with Prabodh and wanted to bring you up to date.
Pramodh is a longstanding member of NLT staff who joined Lalgadh as a member of the admin staff over 20 years
Pramodh exercising in 2014 with help from our staff
ago. In December 2013 Promodh had a serious motorcycle accident which involved a spinal injury causing significant paralysis. Pramodh was unable to walk, write, and was bedridden for some time. After time spent in various hospitals there was some progress so that by May 2014 Pramodh was able to walk between parallel bars, and was trying to write again, and life was looking better. The doctors were positive because he was doing much better than expected.
This slow but steady progress continued through 2014 but in December, a year after his accident, Pramodh’s son Bipin also had a serious motorcycle accident and died before he was able to get to hospital. On top of all that had already happened, this was a disaster for the family and piled on the pressure and despair, and seemed to be the last straw as they had nothing left.
Prabodh’s wife, daughters, and mother-in-law outside their house at Lalgadh
The family withdrew into itself and neighbours seemed to avoid them as if they would bring bad luck. Pramodh’s wife and daughters struggled on while Pramodh tried to come to terms with the terrible changes that had come to his family, but life was very difficult. More recently an opportunity came for Pramodh to have an operation in India that could potentially restore more function to his body, and perhaps enable him to walk better. They decided to try it and, having borrowed money and negotiated a cheaper rate by staying near the hospital after the operation instead of in the hospital, and having family care for him rather than nurses, they went ahead. The result was an improvement, and although Prabodh is still quite
Prabodh at work in the Community Department at Lalgadh
disabled, his functional levels are much better than they were.
This improvement led to Prabodh taking up an offer that had been made before by Lalgadh, to come and live on the hospital compound with his family, and to gradually start to work again. I had the great pleasure of meeting Prabodh in the little house that he, his wife, his wife’s mother, and his two daughters now occupy on the grounds of Lalgadh Hospital, and of finding that life for them has improved a lot, even just through the freedom and self respect that this arrangement allows. His wife and daughters can move around more freely in the safe and relaxed environment at Lalgadh, than in the Maithili village setting, and both daughters are now going to college, one studying engineering, and one studying commerce. Prabodh himself is working in the community department in the reporting section, using the computers
Prabodh and his family
to type up the reports, and a special chair to help support his injured back.
Although one cannot talk about “happy endings” in the context of a family that has suffered such loss and difficulty, it was good to see them in a much better place than they were in. There are still financial challenges for them to overcome as they struggle through debt and commitments, but at least they now have a more secure family life and some positive hope to look forward to.
Thank you so much to those of you who prayed for this family during their trials.