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Rohan’s story began nearly 6 months ago. He lived outside of the Ashram on the street with his elder sister, her husband and son, Ajay. One day at Manav Sadhna we brought in different kids living on the street to bathe and feed them. Rohan and Ajay were among those children and that was how they first came to our attention. It was at that time that we realized that he cannot hear, see or speak, and his sister is also deaf and cannot speak. After that time we would make routine checks on him and his family. In the beginning of September, he must have been bit by some animal on his arm and due to the rains and poor hygienic conditions, an infection developed. Seeing this, we took him to VS where they operated on his arm. We kept him in the hospital for over 2 weeks while his arm healed, making daily visits to check up on him and his family. After they returned to their home, we would take him every 2-3 days to change his bandages and make sure everything was healing properly. Since then his arm has been healing nicely. In addition, the entire Manav Sadhna family essentially adopted him and would regularly check up on him and make sure he was receiving proper nutrition throughout the day.
After his wound had had proper time to heal we began looking into eye surgeries, as there was the potential that he might be able to regain vision in at least one of his eyes. We had several tests done at various hospitals and we took him to see Dr. Anil Khatri, a general pediatrician to ensure that he was healthy enough to undergo surgery and the necessary anesthesia. We finally found some hope at the Nagpal hospital in Shahibag. Rohan was seen by Dr. Ashish Nagpal who said that with two surgeries, one for glaucoma and one for a cataract, both in the right eye, his eyesight could improve considerably. As no one knows for how long he hasn’t been able to see and if he ever could to begin with, it is hard to tell how much of a difference it would make. Still, knowing this, Dr. Nagpal agreed to not only do the surgery but he refused any payment and said he would do the surgery completely for free. Rohan had his surgery November 3rd with no complications and since then he has been recovering nicely. He spent one night in the hospital under the supervision of the hospital staff. For the next three nights he stayed at Jayesh Bhai and Anar Didi’s house where he was surrounded by so much love and so many people to take care of him. After that time he spent two weeks at Nanuma’s house. Nanuma lives in the slum and has been involved in the community center for the past 10 years. She is a part of the Vadil Vatsalya project where they organize prayers every Monday with the other ladies in the slum. Nanuma has never had any children and she lives alone. She took care of Rohan like he was her own and showered him with love and affection, and you could tell this just by sitting with Rohan for a few minutes and seeing how truly happy he was. As a sort of compensation for her care we provided her with anything she would need to care for Rohan such as groceries. He has been healing nicely, and his eyesight has also been improving. Because we can’t communicate as easily with him, it is difficult to tell how much progress has actually been made. However he can definitely perceive light and when we put objects close to his face he tries to reach for it. Now we have provided him spectacles and he has better vision. We have admitted Rohan in the deaf and dumb school where he getting exercise of daily routine work. Overall we are happy with his recovery, satisfied with his project and hopeful for his future. There are so many people that touch our lives and they have no idea, and Rohan’s case is just that. He has inspired so many people with just his smile, and he doesn’t even know they can see it.
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