On a fateful evening, I was hurrying to get into a Volvo back home from work. I still wish I'd walked a little slower or met a friend on the way somewhere. Yet, I boarded that bus. And just as I was stepping out, the driver abruptly started closing the door & moving the bus at the same time. I was pushed out while I stepped out & in a flash, I fell out on the road.
I still remember that for a fraction of a second I was embarrassed, then that embarrassment turned into pure horror when the bus's rear tire went over my left knee crushing it to the bone. I saw my bones and flesh, limp & hanging out. My knee cap was hanging off my bones by a thread of tissue. I saw my flesh devoid of any skin. I saw blood oozing out, it was everywhere.
I almost died when I reached the hospital. They tried to set my leg straight, the doctors pulled at the mangled remains of my leg to set the bones straight, without sedation of any sort. When I awakened the next day my leg was gone.
My husband, boyfriend then, proposed to me when I was on the hospital bed, & we got married a year later.
I rejoined work after about 8 months of my accident & I wasn't confident about walking for many years to come. It was only after my son that I regained my physical independence.
It wasn't easy to go through the pregnancy without any real reference points. Our son Neil was born in 2013 after a C-section. I did all that was possible in my means to take care of him, it did bother me that I couldn't carry him & walk or bathe him for a while.
I think it was the emotional intensity of becoming a mom, & the other stresses around motherhood that moved me to start One Step at a Time. It started as a support group for amputees & now has people with all forms of mobility impairment as a part of the group.
Motherhood unlike anything else takes away quite a lot from a woman. And also gives the most valuable and meaningful purpose to life. I have loved almost every bit of being a mom and taking care of my son, and watching him grow (not just with my eyes) from a tiny speck to a young boy now.
Hema Subhash
#realmomstory
I still remember that for a fraction of a second I was embarrassed, then that embarrassment turned into pure horror when the bus's rear tire went over my left knee crushing it to the bone. I saw my bones and flesh, limp & hanging out. My knee cap was hanging off my bones by a thread of tissue. I saw my flesh devoid of any skin. I saw blood oozing out, it was everywhere.
I almost died when I reached the hospital. They tried to set my leg straight, the doctors pulled at the mangled remains of my leg to set the bones straight, without sedation of any sort. When I awakened the next day my leg was gone.
My husband, boyfriend then, proposed to me when I was on the hospital bed, & we got married a year later.
I rejoined work after about 8 months of my accident & I wasn't confident about walking for many years to come. It was only after my son that I regained my physical independence.
It wasn't easy to go through the pregnancy without any real reference points. Our son Neil was born in 2013 after a C-section. I did all that was possible in my means to take care of him, it did bother me that I couldn't carry him & walk or bathe him for a while.
I think it was the emotional intensity of becoming a mom, & the other stresses around motherhood that moved me to start One Step at a Time. It started as a support group for amputees & now has people with all forms of mobility impairment as a part of the group.
Motherhood unlike anything else takes away quite a lot from a woman. And also gives the most valuable and meaningful purpose to life. I have loved almost every bit of being a mom and taking care of my son, and watching him grow (not just with my eyes) from a tiny speck to a young boy now.
Hema Subhash
#realmomstory
Laxmi Mishra
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17 Apr 2021