Mohammed Hussein was just 7 years old when the accident occurred that left him on crutches.
He was playing with friends near his home when he fell into a vat of tar that was being used to pave the road, severely burning his right leg. After his accident, Mohammed Hussein stopped attending school and had resorted to begging as a source of income, one of the few and unfortunate choices left for an uneducated, disabled boy.
When ReSurge first met him in 2013, he appeared to be an amputee. The lower portion of his right leg could not be seen, as the skin on his leg had contracted, causing his calf to fuse to his thigh and ridding him of the ability to walk.
Many burn disabilities, like Mohammed Hussein’s, are needless and due to limited access to appropriate burn treatment at the time of the injury. In Bangladesh alone, burns affect more than 365,000 people each year, and 4,000 burn victims become permanently disabled.
In 2013, the ReSurge team straightened his right leg, the first step in making it so that he could walk again without crutches. Since that surgery, Mohammed Hussein has been catching up with his studies and feeling independent for the first time in years.
He can stand, greet people and can even walk without crutches for a very short distance, on his heels. His mother smiled and added that he also manages to play soccer, kicking and chasing the ball with the aid of his crutches.
His father, a rickshaw driver, said he was so very thankful that “Mohammed Hussein has been given a second life.” Because of the family’s very limited income, he said they never would have been able to afford surgery without the help of the ReSurge team.
In November 2014, ReSurge medical volunteers and our Bangladeshi surgeons again saw Mohammed Hussein and worked to release the burn contractures on his right foot so that he can stand on his leg again, put weight on it and eventually walk.
In April 2015, surgeons will return to release the left foot in the same way – and soon thereafter, he should be able to walk without crutches for the first time since he was seven.
Mohammed Hussein, now 15, is well on his way to succeeding in school and living a more productive life.