DUBAI: The UAE’s Nepali community has tracked down the family of a woman who lost her memory and has been in the hospital for the past four months after a brain trauma injury.
The Embassy of Nepal in Abu Dhabi said Yam Kumari Thapa, 46, will soon be discharged into its care and flown to Katmandu to her husband and four children.
“We have information that her family is ready to receive her in Nepal and we will soon get Yam from the hospital and bring her to the embassy,” Nirmala Thapa, Nepal’s labor consul, told The National.
“Nepali residents in Dubai have helped find her family. Once we complete all the paperwork, she will return home.”
Passport copies recovered from Thapa showed she had been working with a family in the UAE for a few years but authorities have been unable to locate her employer.
An unconscious Thapa was brought to Rashid Hospital in Dubai in October last year.
She required neurosurgery for bleeding and swelling in the brain and needs care for headache and pain, as per the reports.
Rashid Hospital declined to comment on the woman’s health, citing patient confidentiality.
Thapa spoke Nepali, Hindi, and Arabic but could not remember her work address or details about her family back home, according to embassy officials and social workers.
After reading her story in the local media, a group of Nepali residents visited Thapa in hospitals and shared photos of her on Facebook with a message encouraging others to do the same to help track her family down.
Govind Dhakal, a volunteer, said that within hours of sending out the photograph on a community Facebook page, they received messages from Portugal and Nepal from two people who recognized Thapa.
He has since spoken to Thapa’s husband and daughter, who live in Nepal’s Gorkha district and identified her.
Thapa’s family sent him documents to confirm her identity that has been handed over to the Nepali embassy in Abu Dhabi.
“Her daughter said, ‘She is my mom, please help her come back to Nepal,’” said Dhakal, who works with a construction company.
“I explained that some procedures must be completed before Yam can return.”
He learned that Thapa has three sons and a daughter, had worked in Dubai for four years and the family had lost contact with her in October.
“We did this as a human (gesture). Our concern was to find out where she is from,” Dhakal said.
Doctors described Thapa’s recovery as extraordinary, saying brain edema, swelling and herniations typically have high death rates.
“It is a miracle she survived. Timing is very important. Early intervention and receiving care immediately saved her life,” said Dr Chelladurai Hariharan, a neurologist at Aster Hospital, who did not treat Thapa but has dealt with similar cases.
“This sort of acute brain injury is often fatal with a worldwide mortality rate of 40 percent. Long term consequences are memory loss because the temporal lobe is affected so it is natural for her to forget her past.”
He said Thapa could have suffered an injury to the brain due to a fall or an accident and she could improve with rehabilitation.
Laila Abu Baker, an Indian social worker who helped bring Thapa’s story to light, is keen on seeing her reunited with family.
“She spoke Hindi and Arabic very well which made us think that she worked with an Arab family,” said Baker, who was drawn to Thapa as she met her often in hospital over the last few months.
“She would say she has a son in Nepal. Being back with her family will give her some peace. I hope life is better for her now.”
(with inputs from The National)
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