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.