Traumatised HIV victim fights demons from the past

KATHMANDU, Dec 11 - No one knows who she is, where she came from, and how she got HIV. She just sits there like a zombie staring into the space.

It has been over a year since Ram Devi, the only identity she owns, has been living at Maiti Nepal. No one knows of her past. All she does is sit quietly. She barely utters a word and is oblivious to the world around her.

Two men brought her and her small child to Maiti Nepal in a taxi from Bange Muda in Kathmandu. According to those who brought her, she had been lying at the pati (public shed) for over a week. They brought her to Maiti Nepal so she could get help.

"Ram Devi was in a pitiful state then. She clung on to a six-day-old child," said Bandana Sangraula, nursing staff at Maiti Nepal.

The staffs further recall the time of her arrival. "Her hair was in tangles, her clothes torn. She was a frail creature."

The staffs at Maiti Nepal rushed her to Nepal Medical College where she was treated for nearly three weeks. Tests at the hospital showed that both she and her child were HIV positive. Now, after all these months, Ram Devi still prefers to stay to herself. She does not like to have people speak to her. Perhaps 31 years of age, she is currently on anti-retroviral treatment.

"She doesn’t eat that much either," said Sangraula, adding, "She doesn’t even feel it when it’s cold. We need to pull the blankets over her."Ram Devi also does not recognise her own child. Sangraula said that she refuses to have anything to do when the child is brought in front of her. The child in turn also does not show any interest in his mother. He is more close to his caretaker Thuli Maya Tamang who looks after him.

"He’s been with me for the past seven months," said Tamang. The staffs looking after Ram Devi say she often mumbles on her own. "During the night she talks in her sleep in Tamang language but we can’t make out what she says," said Sangraula.Dr. P. P. Sharma, a visiting consultant psychiatrist at Maiti Nepal, said that Ram Devi is suffering from severe psychological trauma. He added that her state is due to traumatic experience and not any mental disability.

Dr. Sharma added that it could help tremendously in treating her if any family relatives or friends from her past were brought over to her. However, he cautioned that since she does not speak, the magnitude of the trauma in her past could not be ascertained. He said she was in a ‘denial’ stage, where she has consciously forgotten about her past.Bishwo Ram Khadka, director of Maiti Nepal, observed that Ram Devi’s case is unusual. "Normally, those who come here are either mentally retarded, or open up after a while. But she just sits there quietly."