Senior neurosurgeon Dr Upendra Devkota, who is undergoing treatment of bile duct cancer at the Bansbari-based Neuro Hospital in Kathmandu, was shifted to his home district Gorkha on Saturday.

Devkota’s family took him to Boharagaun in Palungtar Municipality-4 as he wished to visit his birthplace. A VVIP chartered helicopter took him to his village. His caregivers said Dr Devkota wanted to drink water from a natural spout there named Sisnedhara.

Dr Devkota, who was brought with a five-member medical team and family members, rested for about 55 minutes in his ancestral home and stayed around one and half hours in Palungtar. The Devkota family repaired their ancestral home in Boharagaun last year, damaged by the earthquake on April 25, 2015 whose epicenter was in Barpak, Gorkha.

Pradip Chandra Devkota, who is taking care of Dr Devkota’s house, brought water from the Sisnedhara before his arrival.

“We offered him water with spoon. He shook his head and his face turned bright after he consumed water,” said Pradip Chandra.  A huge number of locals gathered in Devkota’s house to meet the ailing doctor. Dr Devkota looked around the visitors, but he was unable to speak. He seemed happy upon his arrival in the village.

“He (Dr Devkota) has felt that he arrived in the village. His health is very serious. We took him here to fulfill his wish of drinking water from the tap. He looked happy after he drank water,” said Dr Sanjaya Karki, the physician of emergency medicine who accompanied Dr Devkota during his Gorkha visit. 

Dr Devkota, the founder of the first neurological trauma unit in Bir Hospital, had returned to Nepal in May and admitted at the Neuro Hospital in Bansbari following his five-month long treatment in London.n