Lata’s New Life
By Lata, with Dr. H. and Sunoti K.
My childhood was joyful and happy. Maybe it was because I was the first child in my family that I received so much care and affection. I especially liked it when my mom would teach me to cook. It was so much fun to roll out fresh spices. Mmmmm! Such wonderful smells!
One day when I was ten years old, I felt a severe pain in my chest, and I noticed a lump sticking out of my back. A few days later, my parents took me to Pirgonj Hospital where I received medicine that helped the pain. After a month, I felt good enough to go to school again, but soon I noticed my left leg was getting weak, and I had difficulty walking.
My parents tried many things to help me. Dad brought home some herbal medicines, but they didn’t help. A homeopathic doctor gave me some different types of herbal medicines that tasted so bad that my mom had to make me swallow it. They also got some sort of liniment to rub on my legs. Though the liniment felt good, it didn't make me any stronger.
Three months went by, and the tumor on my back grew bigger. One day, the tumor hurt so badly that I had trouble breathing. Alarmed, my parents took me to Dinajpur Government Hospital. We were told that there was fluid in my lungs and that I should go to another government hospital to have it treated. But we arrived there only to be told to visit a private clinic. At a nearby private clinic, I was prescribed some very expensive drugs and prepped for surgery, but the next day, the doctor told us that he couldn’t do the surgery after all, and sent us away. Yet another doctor diagnosed me with tuberculosis (TB). After two months of TB medications, we returned because the tumor was still growing and my leg was almost totally numb. We were told that I had cancer and nothing could be done at all. Doctors said I would die within three months.
My parents loved me very much and were devastated. They talked with the village Hindu priest who prescribed other herbal medicines and ointments. When he finally saw me, he said that I had been attacked by the monkey god (Hanuman) which is why my legs were weak and numb. I was told that I had to put new plaster on the altar and serve the god every day. While down on my hands and knees, I mixed new mud plaster for the floor in front of the altar. Though I served Hanuman every day for two months, I didn't feel any better. One day, I felt more pain than usual, and I could no longer walk or control excretion.
What were we to do? None of the doctors we had seen had helped me. The monkey god, Hanuman, did not respond to my pleas or my service to him. No medicine had helped, and the tumor kept getting bigger.
My parents took me to the small Dinajpur Mission Hospital. Doctors told us that I had very large tumor in my chest that needed surgery. They did not have a surgeon who could do the surgery, but they said there was a surgeon at Memorial Christian Hospital in Malumghat who could.
It would take three days traveling by bus to get to Malumghat. A few days later, the doctor came and told my parents that their hospital would pay for all my medical expenses at Malumghat as long as my father would provide all the food for me.
In November 2005, we arrived at Malumghat Hospital. After examining me, Dr. K's face was very solemn. He told my father that the surgery could be done, but chance of my survival was very small. Dr. K said, “If God shows his power, your daughter may live.”
Malumghat Hospital was very different from my home-even the language was different. All the people were strangers to me. But every day, two women came to visit me. Sunoti’s and Martha’s kindness and pleasant spirits encouraged me. They read to me the words of God and I became hopeful. The day I believed and accepted the things of God my fears and disappointments left me, and I felt free of the things that worried me before.
My operation was successful, and Dr. Kelley removed an eight kilogram tumor from inside my left chest. I found out that I was given eleven bags of blood! Wow! Where did all the blood come from? Many people that I didn't even know came and gave their blood as a gift of love!
Gradually, I am getting better. I am filled with so much peace. All the doctors and nurses give me such love and affection. Even Phorti, my sister, found hope through the witness of the people at the hospital. My legs are still numb and I can’t move them, but I’m not hopeless as before.
My sister and I love to go to church in Chabagan, a village near the hospital. We got baptized with seven other people in a pond not far from the church. When it was my turn, to be baptized, Dr. K picked me up out of the wheelchair, and carried me down into the water. It was a beautiful day!
Mom and Dad came to visit us. When they heard what happened to us and saw my condition, they wanted to hear about the hope that we have. Now everyone in my family believes, and we will be in heaven together. I think that is why I got so sick with this tumor. I’m so glad God brought us to Malumghat!
Postscript to Lata’s story:
About two month’s after relating her story, Lata developed a recurrence of her tumor (a sarcoma). The tumor grew very quickly throughout her chest and liver. It did not take very long before everyone, including Lata, knew that she was not going to recover. Typical of her enthusiasm, Lata exclaimed, “Good! Now I won’t have to go home to my Hindu village. I can die here and be buried among my new family!”
Lata never complained even though everyone knew she was having more and more pain. Instead, one would hear her quietly singing praises. As it became increasingly more difficult for her to breathe, Lata talked and sang less and less. Still, she loved to hear others read or sing hymns to her.
Lata is now home in heaven—a place where she is no longer in any pain or suffering and where she can join in the heavenly choirs to sing praise forever.
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