The past week was pretty hectic for 38-year-old Sunita Sancheti. Handling indi vidual taxation at a chartered accountancy firm for ten years now, the end of the financial year is always a hectic time for her. But even during the average week, she works extra hours on a regular basis, and only has Sundays off; she is, in short, a typical Mumbai working woman.

What makes Sancheti stand out from the crowd is that she manages to lead a normal in spite of being confined to a wheelchair for the last twenty-two years.

She was just 16 when her world turned topsy turvy. A tumour was detected in the region of her ribs and doctors said it would have to be surgically removed. However, a wrongly administered injection during a pre-surgical procedure damaged her spinal chord and left her paralysed waist-down.

But no one thought it very serious. Doctors suspected that her inability to move her lower limbs was caused by the tumour's pressure on her spinal chord and hastened with the surgery to remove it. However, the paralysis didn't go even days after her surgery. A victim of medical negligence "My life came to a complete stop. All future plans came crashing down and I was forced to take every day as it came. Most of all, I hated being dependant on my family for each and every daily activity," Sancheti recalls .

The doctors accepted medical negligence on their part and said there was a chance that the injection's paralysing effects might diminish in a few months. Clinging to that little bit of hope, her family managed to stay positive, though Sancheti herself became increasingly confused about how she could get back to her old life as the months wore on. It didn't help that she also had to drop out of college, bringing her lively college life to an abrupt halt.

"However, it all finally sunk in when I was talking to our family physician who told me that the faster I accepted my condition and learned to live with it, the better it would be for me and everyone who loved me," says Sancheti.

"My parents were pretty calm and positive throughout the ordeal and gave me strength," she adds. The start of the struggle Sancheti soon started a rehabilitation programme at home. The focus was not on trying to move her legs or walk again. Instead, the plan was that she should learn to work along side her shortcomings. From not feeling or sensing anything below her waist, she slowly learned to distinguish the feeling of pressure. "But rehab facilities weren't good in our city then and the situation still hasn't changed much today," she laments.

Life went on in this way for almost ten years. Sancheti was unable to perform even the most sundry daily chores independently. Most places had no wheelchair access, and that coupled with the gawking looks she got from complete strangers on the street or even at family functions, caused her to withdraw into a shell. She did take up a few computer courses to keep herself busy.

"I would stay cooped up in the house and go out only once a month. I absolutely hated the stares I'd get," says Sancheti. Fighting back But then, she says, "Life took a complete U-turn." When she was 26, she took part in a 45-day intensive rehabilitation programme in the United Kingdom that changed everything. The aim of that programme was to make Sancheti as independent as possible.

"I re-learned every little activity that was part of my day. Every step was covered, from the moment I got out of bed in the morning to returning to it at night," she says.

Even mundane everyday tasks are to be learnt again. "They taught me everything from knowing when I had to use the loo, to using it on my own, handling myself if I fell down, and managing my periods. I loved learning to become independent again," Sancheti says. A taste of independence Sancheti returned to India brimming with newfound confidence. "I stopped caring about people's stares, and started going out and doing exactly exactly as I pleased," she says matter-of-factly.

At her father's suggestion, she also began working in a chartered accountancy firm. Now, ten years later, she is a valuable asset for her organisation.

"We are soon shifting to a new office space. My boss waited a year just so that he could find a location that would be accessible for me," she says, smiling. Helping others And though things have fallen into place for her, Sancheti hasn't let herself get complacent. She is an active member of ADAPT (Able Disabled All People Together) that was formerly the Spastics Society of India. One of her pet projects there right now aims to insruct staff trainers at large retail chains to help people with disabilities.

"We just finished a session with the trainers at Pantaloon's and more sessions with other retailers will follow. The idea is to try to reduce access problems for the disabled in public spaces and to change the attitudes towards them," she says.

Attitudes towards disabled people figure big on Sancheti's agenda agenda and she still wonders why strangers stare at people like her. "Society at large, including government, should think strongly about having access facilities for the disabled," she says.

sai.raje@hindustantimes.com For more information on physical disabilities contact ADAPT on 022 2644 3644

URL: http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/artMailDisp.aspx?article=01_04_2008_548_001&typ=0&pub=264