The Complicated Medical Story of Vimal
- Marty Shively
- Sep 4
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 15
Vimal has lived in pain for fifteen years. Save Kids Trust is helping him get better.
Vimal, 29 years old, lives in Banjara Basti with his wife, two children, his widowed mother, and two younger sisters. He is the only earning member of his family and they live in a small room covered with plastic sheets.
Recently, Vimal suddenly developed difficulty in passing urine.
After a detailed medical evaluation, it was found that his condition had a long and painful history. When he was just 15 years old, he developed an ulcer under his right foot. He received treatment from several local street doctors, but his foot condition always worsened. Eventually, his foot became unusable and very painful, and the ulcer became chronic and non-healing.
Because of poverty and lack of education, Vimal could not get proper treatment. Despite the pain, he continued working as a daily laborer to support his family. Over the years, he also suffered from back pain, which he ignored due to financial constraints.
Recently, his condition worsened when he was unable to pass urine.
With the support of Save Kids Trust, proper diagnostics were completed, and Vimal underwent spinal surgery to remove a D12–L2 intramedullary dermoid cyst, which was compressing his nerve roots and causing severe pain, bladder incontinence, and foot ulceration.
Spinal surgery is always a painful and challenging procedure, but it was necessary to relieve the pressure on his spinal cord and restore his health. Without this surgery now, his condition would continue to worsen, ending in paralysis.
These photos are post-surgery wound care dressing. The incision site has been covered with hearts in the photos where it was visible.
The timeline for our working with Vimal has been months but we knew when he was unable to pass urine that surgery couldn’t wait.
His surgery cost fifty thousand Rupees (USD$585) plus medicines, which SKT paid for. We are also helping Vimal’s family with food staples while he is healing. This type of emergency intervention is only made possible by the generosity of our donors (and the careful budgeting of SKT funds in India).
Vimal is feeling better every day. He has regained control of his bladder again and his foot is even healing. Back surgery is a hard recovery, and he is doing very well.
Thank you for helping SKT assist this devoted family man.
