A picture of misery

While waiting for Muhammad Tassuwar in the South Surgical Ward corridor of the Mayo Hospital in the wee hours of Monday was pretty painful. His mother was lying in the passage on a bed sheet. She was not sleeping for sure, as she woke up when Tassuwar arrived back on his bed. He had gone out to catch a breath of fresh air on crutches while his left leg was hanging in the air. About six feet tall and a smart fellow, he was a perfect picture of apathy, cruelty and recklessness of the doctors.
He was normal till June 16 when he met a minor accident while driving his rickshaw on Bund Road, but its repercussions were horrific and definitely beyond his imagination. Now he was no more normal and impaired for the rest of his life. "I will not be able to forget the evening of June 16 when I met an accident while driving my rickshaw," he said.
In his 18th year of life, married and an Intermediate (Commerce) student, Tassuwar used to attend a local college in the mornings and drive rickshaw to earn his college fee apart from giving Rs 200-300 to his family to run the house. "I did not deem the gravity of the injury to my left leg calf muscles and walked to the nearby Mian Munshi Hospital to get treatment, who sent me to the Mayo Hospital," he said.
"Doctors’ recklessness has cost me my leg. One’s material loss is reparable, but not limbs. No one can repair my amputated leg. I ask the high-ups ‘If the same treatment had been meted out to the sons of the health secretary, minister, the governor or the chief minister, what would they have done’ (sic). They must have suspended quite a few concerned doctors, provided they were alive. My father is running from door to door for justice, but I believe that he will not get it because we are poor and don’t have any approach," said Tassuwar with tears rolling down his cheeks. "We are a family of four brothers and four sisters. I, being a helping hand of my parents, have been handicapped for life. I am living in darkness without a ray of hope. However, I will quit my commerce studies to become a doctor, a good doctor who is a healer and does not inflict life-long injuries on others," he said.