NLC art student Nava Raj Silwal, shown in the hospital after receving an EEG, had surgery to remove a life-threatening brain tumor. His fellow artisans held a successful art auction of their work to raise funds to help him with medical bills
When North Lake College international student Nava Raj Silwal was rushed to the emergency room at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas Feb. 7, he didn’t realize that his crash-and-burn car accident was about to save his life.
Although Silwal had no injuries, doctors discovered that he had a massive tumor on a frontal lobe of his brain.
Seven days after he was admitted to Parkland, Silwal underwent emergency surgery to remove the life-threatening tumor.
“The tumor was very big,” said Ram Pokhrel, president of the Nepalese Society of Texas.
Kapil Dixit, an art student at North Lake and a member of the Nepalese Society of Texas, has helped Silwal with his medical expenses.
Dixit set up a silent auction of student and faculty art work at the college, March 3-7, in the gallery. The auction collected more than $2,100 for Silwal, and another $2,300 was received from donors.
“I came to [the] college and talked to Marty Ray [and the international office] about [holding another silent auction],” Dixit said in an e-mail. “They said they would help me out with it.”
The Silwal benefit was not the first charitable event that Dixit had organized.
In 2005, Dixit held a silent auction for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Dixit collected more than $1,600 from that auction and sent 100 percent of the proceeds to the Red Cross.
“Kapil’s [fund raising] for [Raj] is a great work towards humanity,” said Pokhrel. “[There are] few people who help other people without any selfish reason, and he is one of them.”
Marty Ray, Chris Fulmer, Steven Benezue, Byron Black, and Melodee Ramirez - all full-time art faculty at North Lake – each donated a piece of art work for the Silwal auction.
North Lake art students also donated works from their collections.
Dixit contributed two pieces of his art, and Bridget Talley, the North Lake president of W.E.O.T.A (We Express Ourselves Through Art), donated one.
A total of 43 works of art were sent to the Silwal auction — 41 from North Lake and two from The House of Colors, a private gallery in Grapevine.
Like Dixit’s Katrina auction, 100 percent of the proceeds and donations went to help Silwal cover his medical costs.
“We got a lot of good responses from NLC faculty and students,” Dixit said. “Students have e-mailed the president, saying we were doing a good job.”
The Nepalese Society of Texas also helped Silwal, establishing a PayPal account for use by contributors. As of press day, the society had raised more than $3,500 for the student’s medical expenses and a portion of the bill for his father’s flight from Nepal.
Silwal is now at home in Irving with his father. He must receive chemotherapy five times a week. “I appreciate all the help from [Kapil and the Nepalese Society],” Silwal said.
Silwal also said he’ll be back at North Lake as soon as possible. At North Lake, the cashier’s office on the fourth floor of Building A continues to accept donations for Silwal, officials said. Donors just need to identify Silwal as the intended recipient.
Anyone wanting to assist Silwal through the Nepalese Society of Texas’ PayPal account may do so by accessing the society’s Web site: www.nepalesesociety.org.