Rashmila Awale, who lived with her husband and daughter in Muldhoka, Bhaktapur, was six months pregnant when doctors told her that there was little hope that the foetus would survive.
In October 2014, Rashmila was bleeding profusely. But she would not give up easily on her second child. “I requested the doctor to do whatever it was necessary to save my child,” she remembers. “Because I had lost so much blood, I could barely stand,” she says.
The doctors at Kathmandu Medical College then told her to completely rest for the remaining three months. She took the advice to heart, and for the sake of her child, took good care of herself. When she was into the ninth month, the doctors performed a cesarean section, and fortunately, both the mother and son survived. She named him Sonish.
Six months later, on April 25, the Gorkha quake razed the family’s ancestral house to the ground. Sonish was inside the house, and there was no hope that he would survive. But 22 hours later, a Nepali Army rescue team found him alive. The ‘Miracle Boy’ then became the face of Nepal’s Earthquake.
Sonish is now 16 months old. Only yesterday the Nepali Army said it will grant a scholarship for him to get education. Rashmila says she wants her son to become a doctor.
“Ever since doctors saved my life and my son’s life, I have taken them as incarnations of god. They save lives, and bring hope into the lives of people.”
She says she wants her ‘miracle son’ to bring miracles into the lives of other people. “Maybe he survived because he has a higher calling. Maybe being a doctor and saving lives is his calling.”
