Nepali woman missing
Yam Kumari Thapa has had a memory loss, hunt on to find her family, friends in UAE Image Credit: Gulf News Archive

Dubai: A nationwide hunt is on to find relatives and friends of a Nepali woman who has "lost her memory" — and who speaks fluent Arabic.

The woman, identified as Yam Kumari Thapa, is a 46-year old Nepalese expatriate living in Dubai.

Since October 2019, Thapa has been recouping in a Dubai hospital ward, following a brain surgery. But with no friends and relatives by her side. The employer cannot also be located, according to social worker Laila Abu Baker.

For the last four months, Laila has been working with others to try and find a relative or friend or employer to identify her and make the necessary arrangements to send her back to her home country.

In an interview to Gulf News, Abu Baker said Thapa was brought unconscious to a Dubai hospital in an ambulance around the third week of October.

“She was unconconscious. When she regained consciousness, she was vomiting and suffered acute head-ache,” said the social worker.

CT scan results

According to medical reports — a copy of which is with Gulf News, a CT scan was done after which she showed right frontal intracerebral hematoma and intraventricular hemorrhagic extension.

She is also showing early signs of generalized brain oedama, mild transtentorial herniation and early brain stem ischaemic changes.

Nepali woman memory loss
Yam Kumari Thapa (left) has lost her memory. She is pictured here with social worker Laila Abu Baker. Image Credit: Gulf News Archive

The report states that Thapa continues to suffer from headache, fever and pain.

No has come forward

Abu Baker said on Monday (February 17) is the deadline to discharge her from the hospital. “I am taking her with me. I have no choice. No one has come forward to take responsibility of her.”

The social worker said Thapa speaks fluent Arabic. She also speaks her native language.

The only memory she has is that she has one son.

As for the rest, everything else is blur in her head. “She keeps saying she has a son. That is the only memory she has. Nothing else. Her Arabic is fluent, it could be that she worked as a house-maid in an Arabic household.”

Abu Baker is making arrangement to visit the Nepal Embassy in Abu Dhabi to take up Thapa’s case and find her relatives.