Category Disability

“Access to aids can make a huge difference to polio survivors”

0 Comments read Disability, Health & Science, Poliomyelitis

Neena Bhandari speaks to SBS Hindi

Australia was declared Polio free in 2000. Journalist Neena Bhandari, who had polio as a child says “Polio still poses a threat and is only a flight away. Most people, especially migrants who have arrived in recent years, find it very difficult to get diagnosed for PPS or Late Effects of Polio and then find the right doctor, physiotherapist, orthotists, aged care services.”

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© Copyright Neena Bhandari. Photo Credit: Polio Australia. All rights reserved. Republication, copying or using information from neenabhandari.com content is expressly prohibited without the permission of the writer and the media outlet syndicating or publishing the article.

A life battle with Poliomyelitis

0 Comments read Disability, Health & Science, Poliomyelitis

By Neena Bhandari

It was a meek October morning in 1967, only a month away from my third birthday, I had worn my frilled frock and white laced shoes to go and receive the triple polio vaccine. As I sang and danced along the way, making it difficult for my maternal grandfather to keep pace, little did I know that it was the last time I would be walking by myself.

Later that night, I remember my grandmother cuddling my tiny body burning with high fever as I complained of acute pain in my legs. She had carried me to the bathroom, where my legs collapsed.

In the days that followed, many more children like me began pouring into the Sawai Man Singh (SMS) hospital in Jaipur (Rajasthan).  It was two weeks before the outbreak was diagnosed as `Poliomyelitis’. The word didn’t mean much to me then and I certainly didn’t realise the implications it would have for a life just beginning.

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On a foot and a prayer

0 Comments read Disability, Travel
Illustration Credit: Surabhi Dhandia

By Neena Bhandari

A Cancelled flight, a lost suitcase, a stolen wallet are exigencies we may plan for while travelling, but I had never considered the possibility of an unexpected injury, until it happened during one of my annual sojourns in India. It revealed the dichotomy between the avant-garde and primitive modes of transport and healthcare facilities that exist in the country.

From riding on a vegetable cart to being carried in a no-frills palanquin-like wooden chair for an x-ray, I used myriad modes of transport from Sunderban in the east to Jaipur in the west, following a foot injury.

I snapped the critical weight-bearing bone (the talus) in the foot while alighting from a small, rocking wooden boat on to the hard, concrete surface of a jetty. A torrent of excruciating pain overwhelmed my senses. I have faint recollection of removing the calliper that had shielded the rest of the polio-affected limb from injury and being carried to a bunk in the underdeck of our boat. The first-aid kit on the boat was ill-equipped – with only a near-empty can of an anti-inflammatory spray, my pain threshold was being tested to its limits.

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