JAMMU & KASHMIR: Fayaz Wani catches up with , born with facial hemangioma, who got bed-ridden due to a spinal injury in 2010. Not giving in, after rehabilitation, he went on to represent J&K at the national level as a wheelchair basketball player.
Mohammad Rafee (35), who suffered from facial hemangioma by birth and was rendered physically-disabled after a fall in 2010, has become an inspiration for hundreds such people by becoming a national-level wheelchair basketball player from J&K through sheer grit and will power.
Rafee, who hails from Lawaypora area at the outskirts of Srinagar, underwent surgeries, radiation therapy and other medical treatments for his medical condition, but nothing helped.
“In 2006, when I was studying, a doctor in a Delhi hospital told me that even if it was removed, there are chances that it will recur and it is very complex surgery. He advised me since it was not affecting my normal life, I should focus on education and ignore it,” Rafee told this newspaper.
Rafee then decided not to give too much importance to it (facial hemangioma) and began concentrating on his studies.
Then, even as life was going on normally, an unfortunate accident befell him. “I fell from the roof of my house on May 12, 2010. I suffered severe spinal cord injuries and was rushed to a government hospital in Srinagar. I suffered a T-11 compression fracture and unfortunately the doctors at the hospitals did not attend properly to me. Instead of going for surgery, they decided to wait and watch, which hurt my chances of recovery,” Rafee said.
He said later some doctors told him that if doctors in the government hospital had shown urgency and conducted surgery on him within 24 hours of his fall, there was a high likelihood of him recovering. After the fall, he was completely bedridden for about a year and was totally dependent on others for his body movement and survival.
“My family and my relatives stood by me during my tough days. I could not move and was dependent on others for everything,” Rafee said, adding, “I even developed bed sores due to being confinemed to the bed”.
Things began to change for him from mid-2011 after he joined Shafaqat Rehabilitation Centre, a voluntary medicare society in Srinagar, a specialty medical rehabilitation center providing comprehensive physical and cognitive rehabilitation services.
“I was provided physiotherapy in the centre. It took at least a year for me for posture balancing. In the centre, I was also taught how to use a wheelchair. The continuous physiotherapy, psychotherapy, counseling and guidance by doctors and counselors at the centre helped me a lot. It not only helped me in my mobility due to use of a wheelchair but also lifted my morale. I was in depression after the fall and the counseling helped me to come out of it,” Rafee said.
After learning wheelchair skills, Rafee was introduced to fun games and wheelchair basketball at the rehabilitation centre.
With the sports special wheelchair, he learnt wheelchair basketball skills. He attended a training programme for it conducted by Wheelchair Basketball Federation of India at Chennai in 2015.
He never looked back and went on to represent J&K in the second national wheelchair basketball championship held in 2015 in Delhi. Although it was the first time such a team from J&K participated in the event, it reached up to the quarter-final stage.
Rafee represented J&K in the national wheelchair basketball championships in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and in the last edition, J&K reached the semi-final.
Now he is not only a regular member of J&K wheelchair basketball team but is also training other physically-disabled persons in the sport.
“I am conducting regular counseling sessions and peer training of the physically-disabled persons at Shafaqat Rehabilitation Centre. I also train and coach the wheelchair basket players,” he said.
He is also working as a peer trainer at an NGO called Ganga Foundation since May 22 where he conducts online counseling sessions. Once confined to bed, Rafee now drives a modified car and a motorized wheelchair and is not dependent on others. “Today I am an independent person just like any other person. I am also an entrepreneur and am running my own provisional store,” Rafee said.
“One should never give up, but fight on,” he adds.