Purvi Thekdi Shah on her child Akshar who refuses to be a special child

We at Mums and stories are starting a new series on our collaborative content with One Step at a Time. This is our first story together and we hope bring forth inspiring stories for the readers of Mums and stories.

Meet Purvi Shah and her husband Rajan who are a step above in being just ‘parents’.

They are examples of being exemplary parents to a lovely boy Akshar who is presently 3.5 years. Akshar is an adorable child like most children but has the special ability to take on something more in life without showing there is something amiss.

Akshar has a prosthetic leg and it is an emotional but truly inspiring read on Purvi ‘s parenting journey.

Purvi shares with Mums and stories, “It was like any other experience as expecting parents face through the nine month phase and we were also very excited and happy for welcoming our first kid into our world.

Everything was normal till my last sonography and it was an unexpected reaction from the doctors but perhaps they too were also not aware of the situation of my baby inside the womb.

I will never forget that day as doctors took unexpectedly long time to tell me that everything looks fine. Instead, the doctors came into conclusion to go for C-section right away and a reason given to us was that baby is not getting enough oxygen and we have to operate as soon as possible.

It was Saturday afternoon, I was in Gujarat at my parents place and called my husband in Bangalore to come as soon as he can and he started checking the flights but at most he could come was at midnight and doctor told my parents that we will not take any risk for baby or mother if you will take more time to take the decision as at that point they can’t delay it even for an hour!!!!

And with all belief in God, I decided to go for C-section immediately but I don’t know why but that one hour was like hell because I could feel something is going wrong and doctors are not telling us the truth. And finally, I was on the operation table with open eyes and mind and I could hear finally baby is out and the doctor said: “It’s a boy” !!!

I was not concerned about a boy or a girl instead I asked is my baby alright? Is he fine?

After few minutes doctor said yes he will be!!! What does that mean? He will be? So how is he now? I heard doctors discussion that baby has some infection on a leg and he was born with properly grown two legs but on right leg, he was missing skin below the knee and we need to shift him to another hospital and I could not even get time to see or feel him.

My husband reached next day morning  and he directly came to see me and then he went to see our son as he was admitted to the different hospital where doctors were trying to find out what has happened to my son and why his leg is still not responding and doctors came to a conclusion that he had blood clot in his main veins and because of that his leg was not getting enough blood and it stopped responding and infection started from his right leg which turned into gangrene.

Doctors suggested to go for leg amputation on the second day of his birth but my husband was strong from the beginning and he told me that if he is going to loose his leg that’s okay I want my son and I want to give my best so we shifted him to KEM hospital in Mumbai and next day I too flew Mumbai without thinking about my stitches or my health.

I wanted to be with my son and husband. In Mumbai doctors were  nice and prompt that they started giving my son high doses of medicine just to clear his blood clot and it got resolved and blood started flowing from blocked veins but by that time he had already lost his right leg below the knee so we had to go for amputation and doctors suggested to shift him to Hinduja hospital.

But for better hygiene and nursing and we had to amputee his leg when he was just 21 days old. But we were happy that at least we could save his knee as that was more important for him to get support with his artificial legs. My husband has been the biggest pillar through all these journeys.

When I cried for my baby the only words I heard from my husband was “HE IS OUR SON AND I WILL TAKE HIM BACK TO OUR HOME NO MATTER WHAT” he was on his toes for more than one month in Mumbai without worrying about his job. Thanks to all his colleagues and our relatives and friends who stood by us in this most tensed situation of our life. I feel blessed to be surrounded by people who care for us.

Now my son is 3 and half years old and all active, happy and excited every day for his life. After all these the best things happened to me as a mother was to get connected to one amazing amputee group called One Step At A Time – OSAAT.

This is the group where all differently abled people share their life, challenges, experience, problems and happiness without judging anyone. This is the group where each person has taught me that my son is not alone and he is definitely not going to be left out of this society as we all are there for him to protect and support him. I should thank God for blessing us with such a strong and adorable son. I should thank people around us to accept him the way he is, yes some people do have different point of view but then that’s their own view we just can’t change it or make it positive because everyone has their own mindset and I really don’t want to change it.

No one is disabled, they are differently abled !”

Purvi shares further with Mums and stories, “Akshar is in a school right now where the people around him are acceptable to the situation though they have never made him feel he is way too different. I had met the Principal and mentioned that I wanted him to be as independent as possible.

So they have put railings across classrooms and Akshar literally manages on his own. As he is growing up, he would ask questions like, “Why am I having this different leg?” We would tell him this is his strongest leg and he can never get hurt with this leg. He is slowly more comfortable with the situation. His case was so rare that it was even studied by a team of researchers at Oxford University but they couldn’t really pinpoint at the exact cause. We just hope we will be able to raise a happy healthy individual.

I still remember the doctor asking me before the amputation, whether I will be willing to take care of the child life long or there would be no chances of survival without amputation. It was difficult but there was no way we would give up on him.

As Stephen Hawking says “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge”

For me, all it matters is my son’s happiness and his progress rest all is just routine now.

My son walks… runs… loves to do cycling, swimming, climbing etc. what else I could ask for?”

*****

If you are interested in joining the One Step at a Time Support Group, then please send a mail to mail@onestepatatime.org.in