Quadriplegia fails to subdue spirit of this braveheart

Avneet Kaur

Jalandhar, August 14

Manpreet Singh, who hails from Lasara village in Jalandhar, was like any normal kid until he turned six in 1989, when he felt a severe pain in his left hand and was rushed to a nearby hospital by his family. He was prescribed some medicines and told by doctors that he would be okay within a day or two. But who knew his wait to recover will never see the light of day.

Manpreet says the worst days of his life weren’t when his pain in left hand started spreading to other parts of the body (from the neck down) and when he lost control over all four limbs and got bedridden, but it was when he turned 15 that he faced the really tough times and thought he might die anytime soon.

“I was eight year old when my body below the neck stopped functioning. My family and relatives then took me to every hospital in Punjab and also other states to get me the best treatment, but all went in vain as no doctor was able to ascertain the root of my illness,” he said.

“When I turned 15, my condition deteriorated further and I suffered from breathing issues, high fiver and unconsciousness. It was then that my mother took me to a local clinic to get me medicine for fever, but, surprisingly, the doctor, within seconds, found the cause of sickness and asked my mother to get the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of my neck done,” said Manpreet, adding that it he was then diagnosed with Stage III neck tumor.

He said he was then referred to PGI, Chandigarh, for treatment but all the while, he had no idea about what was going on with him as his family never informed him about his critical condition. “I actually overheard doctors who were discussing my case outside my room. I then got to know I had a tumor. I asked my parents if I am going to die but all they assured me that I will be fine soon.”

And life changed

“My surgery was successful and doctors saved my life but my cervical spinal cord nerves were completely pulverised, paralysing me from the neck down for life. The doctors then declared that my condition was incurable and I would remain in this state for all my life,” he said, adding that he was devastated and felt like there was no light at the end of the tunnel and he was falling into an abyss. “But I refused to accept this feeling and decided to not give up at any cost,” he said.

Manpreet said over the years, he had come to terms with his condition and had realised that if he can live with quadriplegia, nothing is impossible in life for him. “I requested my mother to buy me a computer and the first thing she asked me was how I would use it. Also, we could not afford it, so she denied my request. But luckily, one of my uncles gifted me a laptop and then I started learning video editing and mixing. For the past many years, I have been working on editing marriage and others videos,” Manpreet said.

A die-hard optimist

Manpreet said he felt in each one of us lies a spark of fire which lights up in the darkest hour of adversity. “All that lies behind us and all that lies in front of us is too little in comparison to what lies within us. We can always overcome all our hardships and turn our dreams into reality. All you have to do is never give up.”

Biggest supporters: Gurbani and mother

He said living with a body paralysed from below the neck was not an easy task.

“At times, I get bedsores and suffer from other related problems, but my mother (Avtar Kaur) has always come to my rescue and motivated me to cross every obstacle by reciting Gurbani. I really can’t thank her enough,” he said.

Uses computer with mouth

When asked how he operates computer and edits videos, Manpreet said he used computer or laptop with mouth and pressed the keyboard keys using a small ‘wooden neem stick’. “It took a lot of time to learn to use computer this way, but I never gave up,” he said, adding that three years ago, he had opened a small cyber cafe near his house and was also taking free computer classes of school students of his village.