The power to walk again Former Essequibo teacher Uttamkumar Isurdeen dreams of walking again after an accident left him paralysed

By Indrawattie Natram

The “news” that he would be permanently disabled due to a diagnosed spinal compression after being the victim of an accident has not destroyed the hope Uttamkumar Isurdeen of Pomona Housing Scheme has that he will be given the power to walk again. A hope fuelled by positive thoughts, manifested in his dreams at nights, and the constant support of family and friends.

Speaking to Guyana Times Sunday Magazine from his bed, 28-year-old Isurdeen, a father of a four-year-old boy, revealed what hurts him most is not being able to fulfil his obligations as a father, husband to his wife Komawattie and son to his mother Indera Ramlall.
Ordeal
Recalling that fateful Saturday, February 27, 2010 when his dreams and hopes for the future were snatched away, an emotional Isurdeen believes he had received numerous signs during the day of the impending tragedy.
He said first of all, he was offered a drop with his friend, but the bus in which the accident occurred honked its horn and stopped for him. Despite his initial refusal to go with the bus, they waited on him, and, not wanting to disappoint the driver, he took the bus instead. In addition, that was the first time he would sit in the front seat of a bus. And even more signs, he said, were his son was crying all the time that day and his wife didn’t want him to go to work.
But Isurdeen recalled that he was determined to go home to Essequibo for the holiday weekend to spend it with his father, so that Saturday he went to work; at that time he was employed with Victoria, an East Coast construction company. It was pay day for him and he had gone to collect his money so that he and his wife of two years could make the Essequibo trip home.
On his way back from his work he caught a bus and was heading to his Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara home when he became involved in an accident. He said the bus had hit a car and toppled several times. He vividly remembers being pinned down by the accident.
He later awoke at the Georgetown Public Hospital with severe pains, and had attempted to get up and walk but was unable to. Desolately, he said that was the moment reality hit him and he knew something was definitely wrong with him, and he was going through a change in his life.
After spending 11 days in the hospital, Isurdeen was unable to move or do anything for himself, and remained bed-ridden.
After several examinations by doctors, he was diagnosed with a ‘clinical history of blunt trauma to his back’. He is now unable to feel from his knees down to his feet, and is also experiencing numbness.
During his hospitalization, he said, he had given up hope and thought that his life would have ended. However, later, with a glimmer of hope he said he began recuperating with therapy he received from the Palms.
Optimism despite the odds
Isurdeen said that he went to a few doctors who stated that he won’t be able to ever walk again. He also underwent a few surgeries, and a few spinal specialists were consulted on his condition.
However his prognosis hasn’t changed.
But Isurdeen remains undaunted. He said he still has that strong belief within him that he can walk again. He is no longer bed-ridden, able to an extent to use the washroom on his own, and now moves around with a walker.
He wants to walk again and be the father he always wanted to be, and the best husband.
“I must walk. I dream every night I can walk again. I dream that I am going for interviews for jobs,” he insists.
New hope for surgery
Isurdeen disclosed that he has to undergo a comprehensive rehabilitation package available in India, which is his only hope of walking again. He is certain that the package will make him walk again.
“I will have to go for three months to do this course. I know I will walk,” he declared.
The course requires some $16,500 US dollars (approx 3.4 million GYD) exclusive of air fares. Isurdeen noted that as it is, he does not have sufficient funds, and is soliciting help from individuals or companies willing to help him.
The young and ambitious father repeatedly states that he wants to walk and earn again, to provide for his wife, children and parents, as any other man his age would do.
Isurdeen, a former teacher at Western Hogg Island School, is now always in despair at not being able to provide for his family any more. His only hope, he said, is the comprehensive rehabilitation package programme that he believes would change his present existence.
A normal day for him, he lamented, is boring: just lying on his bed most of the time. A visibly distressed Isurdeen said he silently sits and prays for a change in his future. He stated that he was good in his past, and would have never imagined that his future could change in the blink of an eye.
He said his wife takes care of him before she leaves for work, and he admires the courage and determination of both his wife and mother.
His mother Indeera said she admires her son’s enthusiasm and cheerful spirit. She said she will try everything – and it is also her dream – to make her son walk again and make him relive his normal life. She is also appealing to the general public to help her financially to assist her son in living his life. (Guyana Times Sunday Magazine)