Kathmandu, March 26 -- One afternoon last month in Ramaroshan Rural Municipality of Achham district, 45-year-old mother of five, Sarada Bista, was lopping fodder for the family livestock near her home.

Suddenly, she lost her footing, fell off the tree and rolled down the steep slope. When she regained consciousness, she could not move. Her leg was broken, and she had gashes all over her body.

Bista yelled for help, but a neighbour thought there was a ghost in the forest and did not respond. Hours later, rescuers finally arrived and she was taken to the hospital at Bayalpata, a three-hour drive away.

There, orthopaedic surgeon Mandeep Pathak got a digital x-ray of her broken left femur, and operated on the leg to rejoin the shaft bone. ...