Dec 09

Work Trip To Kathmandu
Saturday 5th December, Namrata, the assistant from work, a 5 year old Hearing Impaired patient, Sristi, her mum, for good measure Anna (who needed to go to the dentist) and myself, headed off to Kathmandu to have Sristi’s hearing assessed, using Auditory Brainstem Evoked Response( ABR)at Tribhuvan Teaching Hospital. In the west this test is widely available, but in Nepal only available at the teaching hospital in KTM

We set off from Pokhara bus park at 7 a.m. We must have been quite a curious group to onlookers. Why was a bideshi (foreign) mother and child travelling with a single Nepali lady and another Nepali mother and child?? Fortunately we had an uneventful journey and arriving in KTM our 1st job was to find accommodation for Sristi and her mum. The 1st room we looked at was far from suitable and it was obvious Sristi’s mum was feeling overwhelmed and unhappy. I was struggling to keep up with all the nepali that was being spoken, and was also feeling overwhelmed at the choices of “hotels” we had seen! But following the gist I piped in that she had to be happy and we’d keep looking till we found somewhere suitable. We did eventually find a clean guest house, and having got Sristi and her mum settled in had a cup of tea with them before heading to our guest house, situated close to the dentist.

Next morning we had another early start. Unfortunately travelling on the Sunday was more eventful than the previous day. A nationwide bandh (strike) had been called by the Maoists, so the only mode of transport was by foot! Unfortunately the guest house that I’d chosen to be close to the dentist and accessible to the teaching hospital by bus, was not close on foot. It took us 1hour to reach the hospital.

We had a quick breakfast of sel roti, like doughnut and tea, in a dodgy “restaurant” before meeting Srisit and her mum and heading into the hospital.

Due to the bandh, things were quiet.I’d hate to be there on a busy day, because even on a quiet day we still did ALOT of wating. On arrival we had to get our ticket for ENT, and then spent at least 30 mins. trying to find the ENT dept and then waited, and waited and waited. Eventually the nepali Speech Therapist and Audiologist arrived. They had both come especially by foot to meet us and carry out the assessment. The Head SLT in Nepal had started out on bike to come but due to road blocks had had to return, He then rang, another SLT and asked him to meet us. Thanks to both of them. The SLT was feeling unwell and actually left for a Doctor’s appointment and the audiologist was wearing a neck brace!

Our next job was to buy all the medicine and necessary medical equipment needed for the assessment. When we returned with the required items, Srisit was given an injection and we waited and waited and waited for Srisit to fall asleep. She is very bright and lively, so wasn’t giving into sleep easily, thankfully, eventually the medicine won! Another 2 hours of waiting while the assessment was carried out, was divided up by periods of sitting in side in the freezing building, followed by standing outside in the sunshine to warm up. Then back inside to answer fellow Nepali patients’ questions about: “What is your name? Which is your own country? Is this your daughter, but do you have a son?” Etc.etc.

Assessment completed it was back to the dodgy “restaurant” for lunch, sel roti again, this time with spicy vegetables! Needless to say Anna and I have both arrived back in Pokhara with funny tummies.

Another 2 hours of waitng and we eventually had our ABR report. Unfortunately Sristi is profoundly deaf in her left ear and severely deaf in her right ear. As we suspected this means the body worn analogue hearing aid she is currently using is giving her very limited benefit! Next step will be to get her digital hearing aids. The money for these will come from donations made from the west and fortunately we have money available to get these. For Srisit’s family this will mean another trip to KTM soon to have these aids fitted.

Long term? Well we’ll try the digital hearing aids, but it looks like a Cochlear Implant hearing Aid may be best for Sristi. If so, we just hope we’ll be able to raise the necessary funding, and one day soon will be off on a trip to Kathmandu again for a Cochlear Implant operation.