Thanks to Indian President,disabled man can now fight, standing

The Indian Express ^ | May 05,2007 | Jaya Menon

[sukhoi-30mki]

Thanks to Kalam, he can now fight, standing

Jaya Menon Posted online: Saturday, May 05, 2007

Tamil Nadu bus conductor lost his legs in an accident, a letter to Kalam on experiment led to new lease of life

Chennai, May 4: For P Thangamarimuthu (38), both of whose legs were amputated after an accident more than three years ago, it’s virtually a fresh lease of life. And the person who gave him new hope was none other than President A P J Abdul Kalam.

The two had never met before. But Thangamarimuthu, formerly a conductor in a government transport bus, remembered reading somewhere about Kalam’s experiment with lightweight carbon-carbon material designed for Agni to make calipers for the polio-affected. This reduced the weight of the 4-kg calipers by 400 grams. This factoid gave him an idea.

Burdened with debt running to about Rs 8 lakh, dismissed from his job due to his disability, and having to literally crawl from one official to another for justice, Thangamarimuthu, in sheer desperation, dashed off a letter in March this year to Kalam, seeking his help to get a pair of calipers.

He had the letter scanned and sent by e-mail to Kalam’s address. “I got a response in 10 days,” he told The Indian Express over mobile phone from Alangulam village about 20 km from Madurai. The letter, signed by the President’s private secretary, instructed him to contact the Hyderabad-based Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS). It was at NIMS that Kalam had experimented with calipers using defence technology systems.

Thangamarimuthu, accompanied by his mother, took a train to Hyderabad on April 7. There he learnt that what he required was prosthesis and not calipers that were used by polio-affected people. But Kalam had realized this and had not wanted to disappoint Thangamarimuthu. So he instructed L Narendranath of the institute’s orthopaedic department to give the man a pair of artificial limbs instead.

According to Narendranath, Rashtrapati Bhavan was in constant touch with him.

Thangamarimuthu stayed until April 30 at the hospital which took care of all his expenses and returned home triumphantly with “a pair of new legs.” He will now need training and physiotherapy to use the limbs. “But a private hospital in Madurai will help me do that,” said Thangamarimuthu.

It was on September 11, 2003, that Thangamarimuthu’s bus was involved in an accident when it collided with a truck. Several passengers in the bus had been injured including Thangamarimuthu, who suffered grievous injuries. His badly smashed limbs had to be amputated and subsequently he was also dismissed from work by the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation as being “unfit to be a conductor.”

It was even as he was having a protracted legal battle for justice that he wrote to Kalam. “Now, I can hope to fight standing,” said Thangamarimuthu.

[sukhoi-30mki]

Thangamarimuthu had asked for calipers but got what he needed: a pair of artifcial legs

[Constantine XI Palaeologus]

Always good to hear a happy story!

[jackibutterfly]

I don’t get it - what/who does he want to fight??

[Drammach]

He's fighting his dismissal by the Transport Authority as being unfit to work.

Evidently he feels he can still function as a conductor with the appropriate prosthetics and physical therapy.

[sukhoi-30mki]

He probably wants a better settlement or suitable reemployment from the State transport corporation .

[jackibutterfly]

Thanks for your responses.