Bestha Chinnabba, 32, has spent the last 20 months seeing only the cracked ceiling in the burns ward of the S.V. Ramnarain Ruia Government General Hospital (SVRRGGH), but his determination to live has not died. When the native of Dharmavaram in the Anantapuram district was rushed here with 40-45% burns on March 7, 2017, doctors were sceptical about his survival. A construction worker by profession, he was painting the exteriors of a building, when the rope supporting him snapped and he fell on a live wire. He not only suffered burns on his scalp, torso and feet, he was also rendered a paraplegic.
Mr. Chinnabba can rise from his bed by a mere 20 degrees, and hardly move a foot, but he is able to use both his hands deftly.
He is separated from his wife and two children, and shifted to Kadiri town to live with his sister’s family. After the accident, his sister and brother-in-law left after admitting him here. “I am unable to contact them. I don’t know if they are even aware that I am alive today,” Mr. Chinnabba told The Hindu , trying hard to hide his distress. No compensation has been forthcoming from the builder or the contractor who hired him.
Though he is not on medication, sustained physiotherapy is expected to infuse life into his legs. “Caregivers dumping hapless patients is common,” says Dr. N.V. Ramanaiah, Professor of Surgery and head of the unit. Doctors laud Mr. Chinnabba’s positive spirit.
It’s not survival that worries Mr. Chinnabba; he mulls over ways in which he can make a living. “I can do any work with my hands, even lying down,” he says, with hope.
