Saima was 15 when she survived an IED blast, defaced. An unsuccessful facial surgery led to scores of correctional surgeries, but that has not prevented her from passing one examination after another. Mohammad Afzal Sofi reports.
On a pleasant April morning in 2001, Saima Maqbool, an 11th class student from Model Town Sopore was going for her tuitions. As she reached near Police Station Sopore, everything went blank with a loud bang. Three days later, she woke up at the emergency ward of SKIMS Srinagar, and came to know that she had survived an IED blast that left one dead and many injured.
Survival, however, was not all that smooth. The blast left Saima defaced with several nasty injuries.
Her family lost hope. “I was sure that she won’t survive. Eighty percent of her face including nasal and oral cavity was damaged. She was unable to breathe. Doctors had to puncture her wind pipe (Tracheotomy) to help her breathe,” recalls Saima’s father, Muhammad Maqbool. For him Saima’s survival is no less than a miracle.
But for Saima it has been a face off with odds and challenges.
Within a month, doctors at SKIMS performed Rhinoplasty (transplanting of flesh from one organ to another) on her face. The surgery was unsuccessful. Since then she had to undergo more than 20 minor and major correctional surgeries, some of them outside the state.
The post surgical period was too harsh to bear but it did not break her resolve to pursue higher studies.
Saima had secured distinction in high school. The accident interrupted her dreams. “I intended to work hard to qualify the MBBS entrance test. But fate had something else in store for me and I had to accept it,” says Saima.
Seeing her condition school authorities promoted her to class XII. Studying for further exams was still a challenge. Unsuccessful Rhinoplasty made her wounds sever, puss started oozing out of her bruised nose, her teeth were falling down one after another and she had persistent headache.
Her family took her to Batra Hospital, Delhi for treatment. In four months she underwent four major surgeries. Doctors removed a1.5 cm wood shrapnel from her face believed to be of the carriage in which IED was planted.
Despite all this, Saima sat in her 12 standard examinations that year and passed with first division.
“Studying was very difficult. I had persistent headache, I was unable to eat anything and had to take fluids only. I had grown frail but I stood firm, every time convincing myself that I have to do it and I can do it,” says Saima.
Next year (2003) she joined Government Degree College Sopore. In 2005 she completed her Bachelors in Science – again in first division. During her graduation too, she had to undergo several minor correctional surgeries and had to take antibiotics that caused stomach problems.
Her woes did not end here. In 2006 immediately after she enrolled for B.Ed, her face started losing its symmetry. Her facial bones and muscles were sliding at certain places blocking her right nostril.
This time she was taken to Mangalore, Karnataka, to be treated at Kimaya Cleft Project, a German backed trust, providing free medical support to patients.
In four months at Mangalore she underwent three surgeriescalled Lefort III, Osteotomy and RED placement. For one year after the surgeries, a metallic structure called Rigid External Extractor (RED) was installed on her face. A five inch long glass rod was also inserted in her nostril.
It was a terrible experience.
“The RED was fitted on my temples on each side and into my mouth. I was not allowed to move my face right or left. I had to keep my face in upward direction even during sleep. I was unable to eat and I took only milk and juice for a year,” says Saima.
She went to college in the same condition and passed her B.Ed examination with 75 per cent marks.
Given her condition, Saima was given permanent disability certificate by a competent medical board. But that did not help her secure a teacher job in the government recruitments in 2009.
Though Saima was shortlisted for interview in the disabled category, yet could not find her name in final list despite having highest merit in the category. Instead she figured in the waiting list under open merit category.
“The handicapped candidates were selected on as low as 33 points, while I had 36 academic without the interview. I stood with 50.40 points in waiting list of open merit category” Saima said.
Her family says they brought the case to the notice of Service Selection Board, which “accepted its mistake but could not rectify it”. Saima is now seeking justice from court.
Meanwhile she hasn’t stopped. She works as a teacher in a private B.Ed college and is pursuing her M.Ed. from Kashmir University through distance mode. She is also pursuing Masters in Political Science from IGNOU.
“I could not go for MBBS, now I want to qualify KAS. I also want to become a social worker and help hundreds of victims like me in Kashmir.” She says with a serene smile.
Two weeks ago Saima underwent a surgery of her jaw bones as she was unable to open her mouth fully. She is yet to undergo two critical surgeries of her teeth and nose. For that she has to wear a leather belt around her face and put three inch plastic piece into her mouth for six months in order to get her upper and lower jaw in right posture.
But again that does not prevent her from preparing for her M.Ed, M.A and KAS examinations.
