Tough road to recovery

Thapa and Rai, both 45, were the two most seriously injured victims of the blaze.

According to Thapa, shortly after she entered the restaurant on that fateful night on Nov 15, the fire broke out. Rai was there at the same time to collect her takeaway food. "I was in the eatery for just five minutes when the inferno raged," Thapa recalled.

Thapa, along with her friend, had visited the restaurant after work. While her friend managed to take cover in the toilet, she slipped from the toilet window while trying to escape, injuring her spinal cord and losing sensation in the lower part of her body.

After spending two months at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Thapa returned to her home in Jordan to be under the care of her cousins as well as a caretaker. "But I still have to return to the hospital each week for physiotherapy. After several months of regular workouts, I can now move my toes slightly and that is an improvement," she said.

Thapa also needs to recoup her mental strength. "Those nightmares have subsided, and I feel better now," she said. Thapa, a divorcee and a mother of two daughters who live in Nepal, has lived in Hong Kong for 20 years, having been a construction worker before the tragedy.

Rai's husband said his wife has been avoiding any interaction with people due to persistent pain from the burns and the mental trauma.

Asked what she would do to deal with the sporadic pain, her husband said, "She takes painkillers and walks around at home to ease the pain. There is nothing we can do but to watch her in agony."

Rai underwent three operations to help her recover from the burns on her stomach, chest, back, calves and knees. She has been taking painkillers every five hours to fight the pain, her husband said.

He said his wife had visited the restaurant to collect takeaway food after shopping for their Diwali celebrations. "It took me more than five hours to find out she was in the restaurant at the time of the fire".

At about 3:30 am the next day after the blaze, he met her at Prince of Wales hospital in Sha Tin, where she was being treated. "Since the tragedy, she has avoided talking to anyone, even her close relatives from Nepal," he said.

Donations have been collected and distributed among families of the tragedy through non-governmental organizations.

"On March 14, we distributed HK$1 million (US$130,000) to the families of the fire victims. The money came from the Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation," said Rita Gurung, chief adviser to the Hong Kong Nepalese Federation.

Other NGOs, including the Non-Resident Nepali Association Hong Kong, also made donations.

"I have so far received more than HK$100,000 in donations," Thapa told China Daily.