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It’s funny. Life, I mean.
Never would I have guessed that I would one day lose my leg. I mean, you see legless people all the time.
But no matter how close their lifestyle and daily routine is to yours, somehow you’re dead sure that whatever that has happened to them would never happen to you.
Until it does. And then that’s that.
One day you’re smashing shuttles in a quick game of badminton, and the next day… well, you’re lying on a bed in an operation theatre while 2 different orthopedic surgeons try to save what’s left of your leg.
With no apparent success, of course.
[Image via The1LeggedComedyTrain]
Hi there. The name’s Thatchna. I’m a DJ and a rookie stand-up comedian.
I was recently involved in a freak traffic accident which, I would say, isn’t really like the usual accidents I get myself into.
See, I ride a motorcycle. In Malaysia. Where the awareness on road safety and signal usage is practically at 0%.
And I usually do get into accidents. I’ve got scars all over my body. Right foot, right knee, left knuckles, right elbow, forehead. You name it, I got it.
And while 9 years of riding a bike hasn’t proved fatal, I guess there was always a chance that things like this might happen, given the ignorant mindset of the average Malaysian road user.
On that fateful day…
I was on my way to sit for my drivers license exam (car license; I already have my bike license) which was like 10km away from where I live.
If I ever got to go through with the exam, I’d now be travelling with my car. (The irony here is that this was the last possible bike ride I would ever have, and it became the undoing of me).
A 10-ton sand truck suddenly just sped up, came right beside me and swerved into me. I was forced to put my foot down to maintain balance, and that’s when the tire clipped my foot.
Ripped it right off, snapped my leg in 5 different spots, causing multiple crush injuries, broken bones and fractures all over my left leg.
My ankle was practically dangling by the skin on the back of the foot.
My foot was smashed, my heel had a hole a size of a golf ball and my bone was poking out of my leg in 10 different directions.
Really, you’d call it out at that point. AMPUTATION.
But the events that transpired in the following months would somehow turn out to be either the crushing moment, or rather weirdly, the defining one.
It’s been 10 months since that day.
As I lay my finishing lines to this piece, it has been just shy of 10 months since I lost my leg.
But that hasn’t stopped me from becoming the person I strive to be.
Just like how the pandemic has been disastrous towards humans but an ally to the recovery of the planet and its ecosystem, this freak incident has buffed my views with a more positive outlook.
I know. I probably sound like a madman, but the things that happened to me have made me appreciate the littlest of things. Things that we all somehow take for granted all the time.
Time. Emotions. Mental Health. Looking out for one another. Laughter. Parental Love.
Little things, with potentially big aftereffects.
Don’t get me wrong. Do I wish that all these things never happened to me? Yeah.
Do I wish to forget all that has happened? Weirdly, no.
I think (and this is just a personal point of view), that whatever that has happened has given me major nightmares, even to this moment as I’m writing this.
But it has also given me a better outlook on life.
We’re not iron-clad, people.
We, as humans, are soft. And vulnerable. We tend to forget that. We tend to think that nothing will get to us.
Until something does.
And then you lay awake at night, wishing for a miracle… like Hermione to appear in front of you, with a Time Turner.
So that all that has happened, could be undone with nothing but a few twists.
Oh well. Wishes, wishes.
If you liked this story, check out Thatchna’s blog at The1LeggedComedyTrain.
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