Thaindian News

New Delhi, April 21 (IANS) Seventy-year-old Hardeep Singh Deep, whose both legs have been amputated, refused to take a wheelchair and crawled for about half-a-kilometre in hospital to meet national-level volley ball player Arunima Sinha, whose leg was amputated after she was thrown out of a running train last week.

Deep was among many visitors, including politicians, relatives and media persons, who have been coming from far away places to see and inspire Arunima, 23, at the the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

“I went there to bless her. She is still young and I feared she may lose hope after this cruel incident in which she lost her leg,” Deep told IANS Thursday. He met her a day earlier.

“Arunima started crying when I told her my story. But I put my hand on her head and told her to never cry again,” said Deep, who now owns a shop in Sant Nagar.

He lost both his legs while attempting to save a girl in 1975 near Delhi Cantonment.

“I didn’t lose hope and started my life on a new note,” he said.

“I played in national level javelin and shot put competitions for the disabled and also won a national gold medal at Ahmedabad in the 1980s,” he said.

Doctors attending on Arunima said a large number of visitors might increase the risk of infections in her case.

“We have told her attendants not to allow outsiders in her room and we are also trying to keep the visitors away,” said trauma centre chief M.C. Misra.

Arunima was pushed out of the general compartment of the Padmawati Express near Bareilly April 11 while resisting a chain-snatching attempt by some hoodlums as she was travelling from Lucknow to Delhi.

She was brought to the AIIMS Trauma Centre Monday night after a serious infection was noticed in the amputated leg for which she underwent a second round of surgery at Lucknow’s prestigious King George Medical College — now upgraded to the Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University.