For this 15-year-old girl it was a routine exercise, one that she had done thousands of times. After getting up early one morning, she sat on a side wall of her apartment on the second floor and began brushing her teeth.
Suddenly, she lost balance and fell down, on a washing stone injuring her spine.
Her family members and neighbours panicked and lifted her by her shoulders, which compounded injuries to the spinal cord.
She was admitted to the Global Ortho and Trauma Hospital here where she was diagnosed with injury at L2 and L3 vertebrae, leaving her paralysed below the waist.
With her family hailing from poor economic background, funds were raised from donors.
S. Karthik, an orthopaedic surgeon in Global Ortho and Trauma Hospital, says “there was an overwhelming response to help this child and money was arranged by an appeal to G.R.G. school alumni through WhatsApp, a social networking application.”
Following a four-hour surgery, the girl has now progressed well enough.
Intensive
physiotherapy
Following intensive physiotherapy, she was able to walk independently three weeks after the surgery.
Dr. Karthik adds, “in any accident scene, the ideal procedure is to shift the patient on to a board just by rolling the patient like a log.”
Rotary Club, which runs rehabilitation service called ‘RASTRA’ for such patients, has agreed to help the girl’s rehabilitation.
