A Nepalese man walked after nine years following four surgeries at a hospital here Friday.
Chitra, 27, suffered from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis -- a debilitating childhood illness affecting all joints of the body and was in a very poor health, besides being unable to walk.
"When Chitra came to India and met me, I was scared to see him. He had no movement at either the hip or the knee. The spine was totally curved and he could not sit without support," said Shishir Kumar, senior consultant orthopaedic, Metro Group of Hospitals and Heart Institute.
The surgeries were performed in three stages -- first both hips, then both the knees and last of all the spine. Chitra can now walk but requires extensive physiotherapy to train his muscles.
"Apart from challenging orthopaedic deformities, operating him carried a risk as he was barely 35 kg in weight. He was severely malnourished and all his muscles were weak because they were not used for the past 20 years," added Kumar.
