Six months after mishap, girl loses second leg too

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, November 12

Preeti (19), who had taken her BA-I exams from the hospital bed despite having lost a leg in a road mishap, has now lost her other leg as well.

On March 20, she was badly hurt after she was run over by a truck in her native village Aanwal in the district. Her leg had to be amputated soon after the accident. But she showed steely determination and took the exams merely 40 days after the mishap.

She was 13 when she lost her father. Always optimistic, she nursed a dream to become a professor in the hope of turning the fortunes of her family, which belongs to the Scheduled Caste community.

Ever since the mishap, she has remained in the PGIMS and has undergone eight surgeries.

Recently, her other leg was amputated at the local Civil Hospital due to the spread of infection.

“She seems to have lost hope now. The family is under financial distress. More than Rs5 lakh have been spent on her treatment and related expenses. We took loans to the tune of Rs2.5 lakh from private money-lenders at the high rate of interest,” said Preeti’s brother Virender, who is a car mechanic.

He claimed welfare schemes for Scheduled Caste and BPL families existed only on paper. “Minister of State for Cooperatives Manish Grover had announced a grant of Rs1 lakh for Preeti, but we have received only Rs40,000.”

“The authorities at the PGIMS and the Civil Hospital had assured us of reimbursing the money spent on treatment. But to this day, the assurance has not materialised,” Virender said.

He added the family had received financial aid of Rs1 lakh from the Manav Sewa Samiti, Rs1 lakh from folk singer Sapna Chaudhary, Rs31,000 from Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) official Jagbir Rathi and Rs20,000 from the local unit of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

Spread of Infection  

On March 20, Preeti was run over by a truck. Her leg had to be amputated soon after the mishap. Ever since then, she has remained in the PGIMS and has undergone eight surgeries.  Recently, her other leg was amputated due to the spread of infection.