Like many city youth who fancy spending time by the lake and its environs, Shaikh Yousuf and his friends were at Gandipet this Sunday.
After an accident left him with both legs amputated four months ago, Yousuf wouldn’t have imagined that something as commonplace as an outing to a tourist destination on the city outskirts would come true.
Today, he can stand, and walk. He is on his own.
That fateful day
He was returning home to Bhalki in Bidar district after his class X exams when tragedy struck.
He missed the RTC bus to his village and hopped onto a tractor headed that way. Some distance into the journey, the tractor tried to take a U-turn when a lorry rammed it from behind. Yousuf, who was sitting on the tractor’s mudguard, was seriously injured with both his legs getting entangled in the wheel.
He was rushed to Bidar and from there to Hyderabad where he was operated upon at KIMS hospital. Though his life was saved, both his legs had to be amputated.
His world came crashing down as he lay in the hospital bed. He lost all hopes of ever being able to walk.
But Hyderabad-based NGO Helping Hand Foundation took up his case and pooled in resources to get him a bilateral above-knee prosthesis of German make. NRI Ahmedullah Khan contributed Rs.1.80 lakh while the HHF pitched in Rs.50,000 to meet the cost of the hi-tech modular prosthesis.
“Now I am able to walk on my own,” said a jubilant Yousuf, thanking Mujtaba Hasan Askari of HHF.
The boy’s father Shaikh Aleem is relieved to see his son walking again. With great difficulty he had saved Rs.3 lakh for the marriage of his daughter, but he had to spend it all on his son’s treatment. However, he is happy to see his son back on his legs.
