He exuded such a loving confidence and filled us with such hope for Roxanne's recovery that Hidden Gems is proud to support his wonderful projects in Nepal. 

Dr. Banskota is an Orthopedic Surgeon who trained in the U.S. and returned to Nepal determined to help Nepal's disabled children. (click here for an interview with Dr. Banskota)

His passion to heal poor children with clubfeet, TB of the spine, polio, untreated burns and infections has led him and his support groups like the American Himalayan Foundation on a journey of miracles. 

The American Himalayan Foundation supported him through two makeshift hospitals and helped him build a new, modern hospital just outside Kathmandu where he performs free surgery on children with severe disabilities whose parents would not have been able to afford the costs.

Still, Dr. Banskota insists that the miracles are the children themselves, who come from poor families that sometimes cannot even afford a bus ticket to reach the hospital. 

Many arrive with disfigured bodies and fearful faces. In the loving hands of the surgeons, nurses and hospital staff, the children transform. 

Some must have steel wires inserted into bones to stabilize or pull a limb straight.  Others experience long surgeries and months of physical therapy.  Their faces belie the physical pain.  They beam with smiles, tell jokes and sing songs. They tell staff that love heals.

 
Every child who comes to the Hospital and Rehabilitation Center for Disabled Children is well cared for, and every day children leave the hospital with the ability to walk, leap and play. 

In the last year Dr. Banskota and his team performed over thirteen-hundred life-changing surgeries.

The American Himalayan Foundation also offers scholarships to orthopedic residents who train with Dr. Banskota and who then become the backbone of his surgical team.