In 1949, together with her mother, she managed to escape and returned to Lithuania, hiding out in the homes of friends and relatives in Kaunas for a year. Her mother died and was buried while still in hiding. Dalia was rearrested and sent to Unzhlag camp in Sukhobezvodnoye in the Gorky Oblast. In 1953, she was once again exiled to Yakutia but the following year, as conditions eased following the death of Stalin, she gained the right to study medicine at Omsk. Returning once more to Kaunas, she continued her medical education there, graduating in 1960 (at the age of 33) from the local medical school. She went to work as a doctor in Laukuva in the Šilalė District. She worked until 1974, when she was dismissed from her job by the Soviet authorities and even deprived of her service apartment.