Update on Chaitanya
Jan 3rd 2011
Since our last blog three or four months ago Chaitanya has been mostly situated in the extremely good spinal unit in Christchurch New Zealand. The spinal unit was started by the father of a very old school friend of mine and although he is now retired we were very happy to be able to meet with the family again. His father was a very fine doctor and John (my friend) had become the Chief Surgeon at Christchurch Hospital before he unfortunately contracted cancer and had to retire.
During this time we had a very good visit from his sister Kishori Mani who was fired up after having spent over two months on the Polish festival tour with Indradyumna Swami and all the devotees.
Chaitanya really appreciated her visit and they had some nice discussions together. I have attached some pictures of the two of them on a wheelchair outing on the hospital grounds (The Hospital is in the country).
We also had nice visits from our relatives (My brother and his family and Radhasundari’s sister from Auckland) which also helped revive Chaiti’s spirits.
Mani and I then returned to India where Mani had to go back to school and I was able to return to getting my business going again.
Radhasundari stayed on in NZ with Chaiti. The devotees in Christchurch have been very generous in their time and support, particularly Hari Kirtan, Yamuna and Saradia who opened their house and hearts to us all. And Phil and Cath Bidwell were wonderfully instrumental in helping to make all the arrangements for us to ease our transition into yet another new hospital and country.
During his stay there Chaitanya had been working every day at a very well equipped gym and made slow but steady progress. He had walked 400 meters (to the Gym and back) unaided! He has crutches but didn’t need to use them (He is still a bit wobbly).
His bowel and bladder function still need work but we are hopeful there will be much improvement over time.
His pain management is still much needed and the fractures in his sacrum (the large, triangular bone at the base of the spine) are not fully healed which still causes him a lot of discomfort especially when he sits.
Radhasundari has had a difficult time during these last few weeks as Chaitanya continued to be very demanding. All the Psychologists and other medical practitioners have agreed that he is a very complicated case and it may take many months if not years for him to fully normalize psychologically. He is fine most of the time, but he has a certain percentage of the time where he acts without awareness of the social norms and he can be very abusive (particularly with his mother which has made her life miserable at times). Even though he still needs some psychological work his attitude is improving, and if we look at where he was 11 months ago, he has made remarkable progress mentally, emotionally and physically.
In mid December I went back to NZ to help Radhasundari get Chaiti out of the hospital as he was to be discharged before Christmas. Things went reasonably well and we then all went to Auckland for a family reunion with Radhasundari’s brother and two sisters and various family and relatives. With the generosity of her aunt in NZ mania los joined us so we were all together again for a few days.
His 10 days or so with the family (various aunts, uncles and cousins) in Auckland was very progressive. Apart from a couple of small incidents where he stubbornly refused to participate he interacted very well with most of his relatives. Got up for all his meals and family events, went swimming twice (Victoria’s sister, where we stayed, has a very nice big house right on the beach in Auckland) and generally participated quite well
Chaiti and I then travelled back to India and arrived in Mumbai two days ago after couple of lengthy flights and a transit stopover in Singapore of about 8 hours. All went well and he was a model passenger. Cooperative and respectful with the flight attendants and hotel staff (We stayed in the airport transit hotel for 6 hours where he managed his bowels, etc.).
We are now booked into the Bhaktivedanta Hospital and getting to grips with things here.
After that our future is somewhat uncertain but our plan is to bring Chaiti back Mayapur. We are currently investigating the best alternatives.
In the meantime Radhasundari is taking a few well earned weeks off staying on in Christchurch to recharge her exhausted batteries.
Thank you all for your prayers and support over this last year. We wish you all a happy, healthy, prosperous and spiritually rewarding 2011.
With Much Love and Affection
Advaita Candra das
Radhasundari dasi
Kishori Mani dasi
Chaitanya Nitai das













