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Standing on their feet Thanks to GBE

Standing on their feet Thanks to GBE

Ganv Bhavancho Ekvott helped four sons of the red soil of Goa to stand back on their feet and boldly face their lives ahead and while three of them hail from the twin villages of Chandor-Cavorim and Guirdolim one has relatives there.

21 year old Austin Lobo from Vasco whose two aunts live in Chandor-Cavorim has been provided with an ‘Advanced Reciprocative Gait Orthosis’ that has enabled him to stand on his feet after being totally bed ridden for over a year.

On 7th April 2021 Austin who was pursuing a course in Hotel Management was coming to Margao along with his friend as a pillion rider on the gearless electric two wheeler Aprilla to visit the Enfield showroom where he had contacts to help his friend.

However, as they reached the new District Hospital at Fatorda an empty ambulance taking a short cut to go to the hospital crashed into them causing a grievous accident that left Austin crippled.

The ambulance clearly came in the wrong lane instead of moving ahead and turning to the Hospicio and Austin who was taken to Hospicio was shifted to Goa Medical College Hospital as it was a serious case.

He remained in a coma for 24 days and his spine was fractured along with the right leg. He also fractured five ribs on the right which punctured his right lung which is not functioning at the moment.

Austin returned home only on 24th May 2021 with no sensation in his body from the chest and has been bed ridden since then. He could only move his neck and arms and needs to be supported to even sit to have his meals.

Further tragedy struck the family when his father Ivan whowas working on the rigs in Qatar and come to Goa because of his son’s accident succumbed to the Covid pandemic on 2nd June 2021.

Since then his mother and two younger sisters – one studying at ITI and the other still in high school – along with some friends have been looking after him and caring for him.

The expenses incurred are tremendous particularly since he has got bed sores and need to be attended to. Due to the failure of one lung he cannot be kept on a water bed as that could cause pneumonia. Presently a nurse from Chandor attends to his bed sores.

For a person who had modelled for an advertisement life turned quite frustrating and he went into a depression banging his head with the metal bangle or khadda that he was wearing which has since been removed. His friends and relatives take turns in visiting in him to keep him company and away from depression.

Austin’s attempts to earn some money through online job offers also failed. In fact he was duped of thousands of rupees by one such company.

In this dark world that he was living, Ganv Bhavancho Ekvott came as a ray of sunlight as they sponsored the ‘Advanced Reciprocative Gait Orthosis’ fitted to him by Dr. Dillip Kumar Sahoo of Evolution Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. from Pune.

Austin can now at least stand and needs help and support to do it at the moment. But Dr Sahoo who took three days to fine tune the fitting to Austin expressed confidence that he will walk as done by another person in Gujarat.

GBE has also sponsored a ‘Hip Orthosis with thigh support and hip joint’ for Edkar Shirodkar from Guirdolim who was a well know mechanic attending to the luxury Volvo buses.

Edkar was working for Paulo Travels and on 26th November 2021 was taken to Orus in Maharashtra to attend to a Volvo bus that had broken down there.

As he was working under the bus the jack on which the bus lifted collapsed and the crank case fell on him crushing his hips and right hand. As the driver of the Volvo bus fled the scene it was left to the people passing by to rescue the poor mechanic howling for help.

He was given temporary treatment at the Osur hospital and then rushed to Goa Medical College for treatment and Edkar has been crippled since then only going to the toilet with great difficulty.

Paulo Travels paid him half his salary for two months and since then his family members have been helping him look after his wife and two school going children.

GBE has provided him with the ‘Hip Orthosis with thigh support and hip joint’ prepared by Evolution Healthcare and now Edkar can at least walk comfortably.

Besides, GBE has also sponsored two other residents of Cavorim whose legs were amputated due to diabetes. While one has been provided with an ‘Advanced Carbon Fibre Foot’ the other has been provided with a ‘Single Access Foot’ or ‘PU Foot’.

The four artificial prosthesis and/or braces provided by Evolution Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., Pune cost around Rs. 5.25 lakhs and all were sponsored by a benefactor who did not wish to be named.