Sixteen-year-old Shivranshu Chhuneja of Indirapuram, who suffered “100% disability” when a 11000-volt transmission line seared him two years ago, is hopeful again.
With a Gurgaon-based businessman pitching in several lakhs of rupees to fit Shivranshu with an electronic hand and leg, the boy can now stand with some support. But the battle to bring him back to normal life is far from over and the Gurgaon businessman knows it.
The man, who refused to be named, has vowed to get Shivranshu another electronic leg soon as the boy’s doctors have advised that his right leg too has to be amputated.
Shivranshu lost his left arm and leg after after getting electrocuted on June 20, 2006. He was climbing a wall near his house to fetch a cricket ball when he came in contact with an 11,000 volt power line that was hanging loose.
His father said: “The boy could not even scream. He just lay still on the ground with his clothes and body almost smouldering from the current. And, despite rushing him to hospital and getting all necessary follow up treatment, his left arm and leg had to go.”
Following the incident, the state power corporation paid a compensation of Rs 50,000 to the family.
The money proved to be of little help as Shivranshu’s father Vijay Chhuneja spent over Rs 20 lakh on the boy’s treatment and even mortgaged his house. The family had “nothing left” after that and it seemed that all was lost for the boy.
However, after Times City carried Shivranshu’s story in December last year, cheques and cash began to pour in. But that was not enough. Conventional prostheses would not have been of any help to the boy as his limbs were amputated too closely from his body. He needed electronic limbs and they were out of the family’s means.
It was then that “angel from Gurgaon,” as his father puts it, offered to bear the entire cost of getting Shivranshu electronic limbs powered by a battery. He even called in a German firm to examine Shivranshu and get him the limbs.
Shivranshu is coming to terms with his loss and gradually settling into the life. He recently appeared for his class 10 examination from an open school in Noida and is awaiting his results. And then, there is his computer that his father Vijay Juneja earlier bought him. The computer remains this geek’s closest companion and World Wide Web his means to connect to the world.
While things have changed for better, his ordeal is far from over. Shivranshu still needs some time before he adapts to the new limbs. “My left hand can now pick up a tumbler. But, I cannot use the fingers individually,” he says.
Posted By Staff Reporter: Gurgaon City News
in Gurgaon News
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