There are many causes of spinal cord injury in Nepal.
We, who live in western countries, rarely, if ever, experience the major causes of spinal cord injury in Nepal:
- people, usually women and children, scavenging for food to feed their animals, on whom they depend for food, milk and their livelihood, tumble from trees and cliffs
- others plummet from incomplete buildings whose upper floors are not fitted with safety rails
- bus passengers, jostled on the tops of overcrowded moving buses, fall onto the rutted and potholed roads
Other causes, more familiar to us, are motor vehicle crashes (often motorbikes). They usually result from the lack of safety standards for vehicles, deplorable road conditions, and unskilled drivers.
Nepal deserves a safer society!