Head of the family 66-year-old Lal Bahadur Saud said, “My grandfather and father were both handicapped. Along with my five brothers I am also handicapped. All our children are handicapped. My daughter´s children are handicapped. In addition, our daughter-in-law also became handicapped after marrying into our family.” The family lives in Aita village near district headquarters.
Members of the Saud family are not born handicapped. And they do not show any symptoms of disability until 15 or 16 years of age. “As soon as we reach 16 years our legs begin to show signs of handicap,” said Saud whose own legs became disabled when he was 28.
Of the five Saud brothers, two died after becoming disabled. The offspring of the three surviving brothers have disabilities affecting different parts of the body from limbs to the ears. “Before becoming disabled there is an onset of continuous fever, the affected parts of the body begin to swell and within a few days there is no proper functioning,” said Saud.
Saud recalls his eldest son, Karan Saud, walking to and from Dhangadhi before he became disabled at age 15. His younger son suffered the same fate at 16. Saud´s daughter became handicapped after she got married and her children have started showing similar symptoms, informed Saud with much sadness.
After becoming handicapped 38 years back, Saud went to the Team Hospital in Dadheldura for a checkup. “Dr Simon reported that he was unable to detect any disease but prescribed some medicines, after which I haven´t visited any doctor,” said Saud. His eldest son Karan has visited several doctors, with the help of donations, but they failed to find a cure.
“Even specialist doctors have failed to find the reason behind our family´s disability,” said 38-year-old Karan. “When media wrote about our family six years back, a team came from the Department of Health in Kathmandu to collect blood samples, but they also couldn´t find anything.”
The Saud family has been making ends meet with the help of villagers. At the moment the government also provides each family member with an allowance of Rs 1,000 per month and this has made their lives much easier. “After all this, we feel that this must be some kind of divine play rather than just a disease,” said Saud. The family is more concerned about the failure to diagnose their disability than about their survival.
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