Twelve year old Mithali who hails from Nagpur was like any other little girl her age. She used to enjoy playing and dancing with her friends until that gruesome tragedy that changed the course of her life to be. Precisely the 5th of October last year while playing with her friends on the terrace of her flat, she accidentally touched High Tension 11 kva electric lines (of Maharashtra State Electricity Board) that were close to her balcony. At that time load shedding was in progress, however, as she touched the wire that very moment electricity came on. Mithali got stuck to the HT wire for a few minutes. While it is a miracle how she survived the jolt but due to the accident, Mithali lost her complete right arm from the shoulder, her left leg below her knee and her right foot partially.
Today, seven surgeries and eleven months have gone into giving this little girl a new lease of life including painful skin grafting. The skin on her thighs has still not healed from the grafting. Thankfully, Mithali would be able to walk very soon grace to the artificial limbs that have been fitted to her at the Zirakpur based Nevedac Prosthetic Centre which is a charitable organisation of international repute manufacturing artificial limbs, prosthetic and orthotic appliances for the poor and needy. It had been founded by Col DS Vohra, a pioneer in the field of Artificial Limbs who also founded the Artificial Limb Centre in Pune, the first such in Asia.
“Even today, Nevedac is unique in the sense that 30% of the employees working in the institution are disabled people themselves. For instance, we have a person with artificial legs making artificial legs for others,” says Lt Col K J Vohra (Retd), director, Nevedac Prosthetic Centre. The Centre has today become a ray of hope for physically challenged across the country.