THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is not always that a person dedicates himself to caring for a bedridden younger brother -- who has been on ventilator support -- for as long as 13 years. And the patient, paralysed from neck down, survives and gets a little better. He speaks now. Vipin, 43, stays close to Lijo, 11 years younger, almost like a mother. But amid his own struggles to make ends meet, the coronavirus lockdown dealt Vipin a huge blow. He lost his private job at Marthandam in Tamil Nadu. In a desperate measure, he sold his property.
The brothers, along with Vipin’s family, shifted to a rented house at Neduvanvila near Parassala three months ago. Friends and well-wishers came forward with assistance, helping pay the Rs 5,000 rent for the new house. As Vipin’s wife and sister too are patients, not in the best of health, food for the whole family is supplied by neighbours and local organisations.
“He is just 32 and has a long life ahead. He was in the ICU for around two years, with little hope. Now, he can speak and feel. That is a positive sign. So I’m confident he will get his normal life back. I am living for that moment,” Vipin says. Lijo suffered paralysis and was diagnosed with acute encephalomyelitis neuropathy in 2007. Treated at the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences for one-and-a-half-years, he was shifted to the medical college hospital in Karakonam. After two years there, they had to shift to the rented house with the ventilator, which now runs up electricity charges of around Rs 6,000.