She suffered 16 major fractures after meeting with a near fatal road mishap in Dec 2016
"Crossing the finishing line in half marathon felt just how I had visualised... something I had decided when I could barely walk," recalls city girl Sakshi Maheshwari, after she covered the 21-km Mangalore Half Marathon on September 30. While it may not be a big deal for most runners, it was milestone for this girl, who could not stand on her own about 18 months ago or even hold tea cup properly.
Sakshi, now a student in the fourth year of MBBS at Manipal University, had met with a road mishap in December 2016. Doctors had told her parents that she had about 50 per cent chance of survival; she had 16 fractures in her legs, hands and face combined. Her right hand was dysfunctional and she had to be operated upon several times and had to get metal rods implanted in her hands and legs. Being bed-ridden for months, it took her six months to get rid of the wheel-chair.
"Giving up was never an option for me. I told myself that these are hands of a surgeon and they have to work. I knew I would be okay one day," Sakshi told DNA. Herself a student of medical science, Sakshi said that she was suffering from extreme pain while undergoing physiotherapy and occupational therapy, but moving (almost dead) organs was necessary to prevent them from becoming redundant.
She decided that she will not be satisfied with just standing or walking without anyone's support but will start running as well. Back at her college in Manipal, she started practicing on the track in the indoor stadium. During one of the review meetings with Dr Girish Menon, a neurosurgeon, who also happened to be her faculty, she informed him that she had started jogging.
A marathon runner himself, Dr Menon got Sakshi enrolled with Mangalore Runners Club. Sakshi enrolled herself for the half marathon. She started running with 'Ankle Foot Orthosis' on. Things were not so easy. She fell down and got injured when she had just completed 12 kms. She stood up, applied medicines and completed the marathon.
"Now this is a new normal for me," she said. She is also a trained dancer in Bharatnatyam. "When her legs are strong again, we will do her Arangetram again," said Satish Maheshwari, her father.
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