After examining over 200 bodies, Nepali doctor holds out hope for missing Koreans
Dr. Arbin Shakya speaks with the Hankook Ilbo at Bharatpur Hospital in Nepal’s Chitwan district, Monday. Korea Times photo by Nam Byeong-jin
CHITWAN, Nepal — As a doctor, Arbin Shakya has witnessed countless deaths. But even he felt overwhelmed by the sight of bodies drifting endlessly downstream.
Large numbers of bodies swept away by the floods were recovered across Chitwan’s low-lying plains. Shakya had spent six days without leaving Bharatpur Hospital in Nepal’s Chitwan district when the Hankook Ilbo interviewed him Monday. He was tasked with examining bodies recovered from the river and brought to the hospital, as well as collecting DNA samples to identify them. Over those six days, he handled more than 200 bodies.
“Bodies poured in during the first two days after the floods,” Shakya said. “I’m a doctor, and this is work I must do for the people of Nepal, but it has been emotionally exhausting.”
Chitwan lies some 200 kilometers from the flood zone near the Tibetan border. After being carried all the way downstream to Chitwan by the torrents, few of the bodies remained intact.
“Most consisted of only an arm, a leg or a torso. They bore numerous wounds from being battered against rocks,” he said. “I can’t imagine how painful it must have been to be swept away by the river.”
Prolonged submersion, combined with the hot and humid weather, had left the bodies in an advanced state of decomposition. Working amid the overpowering stench, Shakya found himself conflicted over how he should feel: Should he be glad that he had helped families find their missing loved ones, or should he grieve because he was bringing them news of their deaths?
But after seeing the hospital crowded with people hoping to find even a fragment of bone or flesh belonging to their missing loved ones, Shakya came to a firm resolution: He would do his best in the role entrusted to him. Soldiers and police were searching for and rescuing the missing. His job was to examine the bodies and return them to their families as quickly as possible.
Families of missing people view photographs of recovered bodies on a monitor at a missing-persons center in Nepal’s Chitwan district on Sunday, as recovery efforts continue following catastrophic floods in the Himalayan region. Yonhap
As the days passed, the raging currents subsided, as did the number of bodies drifting downstream. As of the day Shakya was interviewed, around 80 bodies remained at Bharatpur Hospital.
“I expect the sample collection to be completed by tomorrow or the following day,” Shakya said. “It has been difficult, but we have worked day and night and done everything we could for the people of Nepal.”
He also offered a glimmer of hope for the Korean nationals who remained missing.
“Of the more than 200 bodies I have examined, I have not seen anyone who appeared to be Korean,” he said. “Perhaps that is because they are still alive.”
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.