The temblor, two years in a hospital bed, 27 surgeries. nothing can shake the courage of quake victim Zankhna Shah. A courage that has allowed her to stand on her own feet again, surprising even the doctors who treated her at Ward No 5 of V S Hospital.Patients came and went but Zankhna Shah, a resident of Giriraj Avenue which collapsed in the January 2001 quake, stayed on the same bed for two long and pain-filled years. ‘‘It’s faith that kept me going. Faith in God, my doctors and myself is what gave me the strength to go through all the pain and the hope that one day I would get better,’’ says Zankhna, who is finally getting discharged on January 16.Zankhna lost her husband and her mother-in-law along with her right hand. ‘‘Everything around us started shaking and so we dashed to the ground floor. But I soon realised that my younger son had been left behind and went back to get him. I threw him from a window and he managed to escape unharmed but could not get out myself and was buried for five hours under the water tank and pillars,’’ she remembers.Zankhna was admitted in hospital with a mutilated leg. Her knee-joint was crushed, she had multiple fractures and a gaping hole in her thigh left by loss of soft tissue and muscle. Says Dr Prakash Parekh who treated her, ‘‘There was a 10-inch hole in her left thigh and, frankly, the only thing we were hoping for then was a miracle. Initially, we had no idea whether she would ever be able to walk or not. We even told her that we might have to amputate her leg. But Zankhna is a patient and tremendously brave woman, who kept saying that she believed in us and that she would get better.’’And such was her faith that the miracle did happen. Though it took 27 surgeries — both major and minor — and two years. Now, it will be just another three months before Zankhna walks again and a year before she is completely alright. ‘‘I can hardly bear the excitement of returning home to my kids,’’ says Zankhna. Zankhna’s kids — Rushabh, 14, and Dharmik, 9 — are living with their grandfather Sevantibhai and aunt Devika at Vadaj.‘‘They got a new house after the quake. I will go there after being discharged and the first thing that I plan to do is pay my respects to my late husband and mother-in-law. Next, I plan to spend some quality time with my children. It will be after ages that I will be staying with the two. Even they’ve had to suffer a lot,’’ says Zankhna.
