A FAMILY in Labasa is praying to one day see their daughter walk normally like other children her age.
Salvi Deo, who is one year and eight months old, was born with deformities in her lower limbs.
The baby girl of Nagigi is taken care of by Latchmi Prasad, 57, and his wife Parmila Wati when her parents are at work.
Her parents Salesh Deo and Shital Devi preferred that Mr Prasad talk to this newspaper about their daughter’s problems.
Mr Prasad, his wife and Salvi have become attached to one another.
“My wife and I are very much attached to her and we want to see her walk some day,” he said.
He said Salvi’s parents were employed and she stayed with him and his wife most of the time.
“We are not really related, but it’s our love for the small girl that has kept all of us together. When she cries in the middle of the night and her parents can’t make her quiet, they bring her to us because she sleeps peacefully when she’s with us,” he said.
“Our bond is so close that when my wife goes somewhere, Salvi cries. She does not do that when her mother leaves her.”
Mr Prasad said he, his wife and Salvi’s parents had decided to do something to improve her condition, so she could walk normally like other children.
“She is a very strong girl, she smiles even though she’s in pain,” he said.
“There are times when we take her to the hospital in the middle of the night when she suddenly has fever. Sometimes she is sick for a week and it’s really hard for us to see her like that.”
Mr Prasad said they wanted to send Salvi to India for surgery to fix her lower limbs and enable her to walk.
While they are not too aware of the actual cost of treatment and other logistics, he said they would be grateful for whatever assistance was rendered by the public for Salvi to undergo surgery to fix her lower limbs.
