BIDUR, Nepal (AP) – It was an unlikely escape. By his own account, he should have died. But when the humble hut of stacked grey stones collapsed onto Funchu Tamang, who believes himself to be 101 years old, his daughter-in-law quickly pulled him from the wreckage.
He was hit in the chest by a rock during the quake. A couple of ribs were broken, giving him trouble breathing. The next day, just when his son arrived from Nepal’s northwest, Tamang was weak and delirious. “I thought my father was dead,” 58-year-old Bal Bahadur Tamang said Monday. But the old man had only fallen unconscious.
They revived him, but a few days later it became clear he needed more medical help. His wheezing was getting worse. He was tired and often dizzy.
They called the Nuwakot district hospital for help, which sent a police helicopter to land near his village and bring him here on Saturday.
On Monday, doctors monitored Tamang’s vital signs at the makeshift clinic set up in the parking lot of the district’s medical office in the partially ruined town of Bidur.