Minus leg, Nurlaili faces tough life

Minus leg, Nurlaili faces tough life

Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post/Banda Aceh

Nurlaili, 20, has barely smiled since the tsunami catastrophe on
Dec. 26 last year, when she lost her right leg. The resident of
Lhok Nga district in Aceh Besar regency, is among thousands of
Acehnese who are adapting to life as a physically disabled
person.

"I never dreamed of something like this happening, but I have
to accept the reality," said Nurlaili during an interview in the
Lamlhom displaced persons shelter, some 12 kilometers west of
Banda Aceh city.

Largely dependent on her three brothers, Nurlaili said she was
unable to do anything for anyone -- and could only manage to feed
herself.

"If I want to go to the toilet, for example, I have to be
supported by my brothers," said Nurlaili.

Before she lost her leg, she earned money as a babysitter. Her
family, who barely earned enough to survive before the
catastrophe, could not afford to put her through school, so she
quit after junior high school.

Now, after losing her leg, she is desperately worried about
her future. "Who will accept a disabled person like me?" she
said.

Nurlaili lost her leg because of delayed medical treatment.

Surviving the tidal wave, Nurlaili fled to Lamlhom subdistrict
from Lampuuk subdistrict, but in Lamlhom she caught her leg on a
barbed-wire fence. She screamed in pain, alerting a stranger to
her predicament. He released her leg from the fence and brought
her to a nearby medical post.

She was then brought to a military hospital in Banda Aceh, but
it was too late: the wound was festering. The military hospital
gave up and suggested that Nurlaili be taken to Adam Malik
Hospital in North Sumatra. Escorted by her little brother,
Zulfikar, Nurlaili flew to Adam Malik Hospital on January 5
aboard a Hercules military airplane.

Given the severity of her wound, doctors at the hospital
decided to amputate Nurlaili's leg a few centimeters below her
knee. The drastic measure was taken to save her life.

Nurlaili was in hospital for 80 days, where she was fitted
with an artificial leg.

Nurlaili returned to the shelter in Lamlhom subdistrict where
she is living with her three brothers. They live modestly as food
and other aid is hard to come by. The area is considered unsafe
as it has been prone to armed conflicts between the Indonesian
Military and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

"We want to return to Lampuuk where we lived, but we have to
build a house first," said Sofyan, one of Nurlaili's brothers.

Sofyan says he cannot look at his sister without feeling sad.
He is worried her disability will cost her her confidence and
that no man will want to marry her.

As the artificial leg was too small for her, Nurlaili now uses
crutches to get about.

Nurlaili is not hoping for much, but she is determined not to
be a burden for her brothers.

She suggested that sewing classes would be one way out of
poverty, for her and others like her.

"But, does the government have any plans for disabled people
like me?" she said, her eyes wet with tears.