Once in a lifetime, we were babies, someones pride, someones joy. We learnt a lot of things we don’t remember, but we carry it along with us. Thus was learning how to toss and turn, to sit, to walk and the hardest – learning to talk.
We all learnt to toss and turn naturally without trying much. We learnt to sit by tossing and turning. Somehow, after trying so hard, we would fall back. And we always had a lending hand; our mother and father. We learnt to walk by first crawling and holding onto items. Repeatedly, we have fallen, injured ourselves and got back on our feet. It was not an easy task. And then we finally learnt to talk. As a matter of fact we will always learn to talk. First we stammer, then we talk broken English, and someday it leads to perfection or maybe never!
These precious little moments and learning’s, we will never remember, but we carry them embedded in our genes.
But…
For this girl, at the age of 17, she had to go back to the days of very early childhood: A baby!
This young girl met with a horrible incident on July 2009. Depression and frustration made her want to leave home for just one night, and attempt any suicidal task. She was so fed up of life, that she jumped out of the balcony without thinking, and suffered two fractures in her spinal cord and a smashed heel.
She underwent major surgery to her spinal cord where the doctor inserted metal implants: two rods, two screws and one crossbar. And the danger being she could have got paralyzed.
But she survived…
And instead she stayed in hospital for a month and 12 days, just lying on bed, unable and not allowed to toss and turn by herself, and definitely not sit at all. There was nothing she could do. She could not turn, sit or walk and neither could she eat by herself. Even the toilet was bought to her. She had never being this helpless.
She had to learn everything what she learnt when she was a baby; to toss and turn, to sit and to walk, but no to talk as that was all she knew. And shockingly, she had to learn it for the second time in her life, and this time around she will always remember each moment.
At first, she had forgotten how to roll, to turn, and how she slept at night. She had nurses coming to her every two hours to turn her from side to side. Every time she turned, she had to stay still and slowly turn. It was extremely uncomfortable and excruciating.
For more than a month, she learnt how to turn. It was a slow process. But she learnt it. Now she could turn on her own, but not as quite as before and never will be…
She returned to a new place called home.
Things got a bit more familiar.
Soon, the next day, she learnt to sit. It was one of the hardest achievements. She was only allowed to sit with a corset on, and it had two metal strips at the back, making her posture straight, and body pain.
She still remembers that day very well. She put her corset and tried to sit.
But she could not and wouldn’t, fearing a crack in her spine. So, with the help of her mother and sister, she slowly became upright once again.
She felt dizzy. She felt heavy. She knew she would fall. But like her baby days, she had her mother to prevent her from falling back.
Everyday, for the next two months, she had to learn to sit, slowly and carefully. She could not sit for long. It started with 10 minutes, 15, 30 and then an hour, and so on for each day.
It was hard. Plain hard. Easy tasks became large and heavy tasks. She had trouble combing her hair, eating by herself, having a bath and so more.
But she was very determined to be normal again. To be able to be independent again. So, she went against pain. She had not even cried after she jumped! She was strong in amazing ways. Unbelievably different.
Two months after, she learnt how to walk. It was one of the other hardest achievements. Every time, she took a step, she would nearly fall. She had lost her balance, and her metal implants were quite heavy on her. But, as determined she was, she pushed herself to limits. She walked as much as she could and tired the next day.
And the next…and so on…
Two months after she first walked, today, she is a lot better. She could do many things, but never like before. She walks with balance. She could still dance and organize events. She is even in the university choir, even though she knows how hard it is to sing with her back.
And even today, as I write, she is still as active and energetic.
Life has been and is incredibly hard for her because she cannot do anything like before. Everything she does is an reminder and limited. She cannot sit or stand for long, and she cannot sleep flat because there is something pointy, annoying her back.
But she never gave up. She continued to fight. She continued to survive. She crossed limits, boundaries and hearts. AND she knows what she has now is a miracle, indeed a second chance.
And coming to think of it, that girl was…
ME…
I hope this story inspires people, teaches them a lesson, teaches you about spontaneous decisions, overcoming them and never giving up. This is a true story which happened to me. And with a smile, I’m lucky to be still alive =)
by Rashika Fazali
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