BARIPADA: Maya Hembram is 31 but all she weighs is a meagre 22 kg. Afflicted by an unknown medical condition two years back, this resident of Dumurdiha village in Kuliana block has been reduced to a skeleton.
Let alone performing regular chores, such is Maya’s condition that she is even unable to walk due to extreme weakness. To make matters worse, her father Rama, a daily wager is unable to avail advanced treatment for his daughter due to poverty.
Maya is the fourth among Rama’s five daughters. While three elder sisters are married, she and her younger sibling Tulasi are faced with tough odds due to their father’s poor economic condition. The family subsists on whatever little it gets from a small piece of land Rama owns in the village and ration from the government’s food security scheme. Though Maya and her family are beneficiaries of Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana, they do not know how to utilise the healthcare benefits.
Tulasi said Maya’s ordeal started two years back when she started losing weight. “I took her to PRM Medical College and Hospital at Baripada in 2020 where the doctors said the weight loss was caused by diabetes-related complications. As the medicines prescribed by doctors were not available at the Niramaya counter of the hospital, I bought them for Rs 7,000 from a drug store outside,” she said.
Maya took the medicines for over a year but it did not show results. Last year, Tulasi once again took Maya to a private hospital in Baripada and spent Rs 4,000 on medicines but to no avail. “Owing to poverty, we are unable to consult doctors at Cuttack or Bhubaneswar. I suspect the doctors at Baripada have not been able to diagnose the disease my sister is suffering from. My father used to provide money for buying medicines for treating Maya’s condition but is unable to do so now as he is old and is sick himself,” said Tulasi. “We will be grateful if anyone comes forward with financial help for my sister’s medical treatment,” she added.