Losing a limb is painful enough for any human being. Yet
we read so many stories of courage, hope and triumph in
the midst of defeat, that it makes the rest of us realize life
is about more than just how you look.


But to lose a limb AND go on a national TV talent show
and perform in front of millions? Now that’s a story we
don’t often hear.


27 year old Subhreet Kaur Gumman, aka the one-legged
dancer as she is now famously known, from Ludhiana,
India, has just done something so remarkable, her story is
being shared around the globe.


In October 2009 she lost one of her legs in a motorcycle
accident, which dramatically altered the course of her life.


“I fractured my knee badly but I wasn’t dying, my life
wasn’t in danger thankfully,” she told the Daily Mail in the
UK who covered her story. However due to negligence from
the hospital which left her lying in a bed for two weeks, her
leg took a turn for the worse.


“My mum begged doctors to treat me, but they just put my
leg in a brace and left me. They didn’t even attempt to treat
my fracture,” said Subhreet.


She already had a pre-existing condition called
Arterioenous Malformation, which is an abnormal
connection between veins and arteries. This made doctors
apprehensive about performing surgery on her. Two weeks
later when she did have the surgery, a doctor mistakenly
cut a vital vein which left her bleeding uncontrollably.


This meant she had to wait even longer for her leg to heal
from the bleeding, for the doctors to be able to fix the
fracture. She was sent home, and eventually her leg started
to get worse and worse. She was bed ridden for two more
months and started to see her toes and leg turn black. The
infection had spread so far Subhreet begged her mother to
have her leg amputated.


“I was sobbing. I was devastated, but I knew that I had to
cut it off, it was the only option left and the only chance I
had of trying to get my life back,” she said.
Almost a year after the accident she had her leg
amputated, and surprisingly, it was a relief for Subhreet not
to have a lifeless limb attached to her anymore.


After the surgery, she started reading a lot of stories about
other amputees and how they re-started their life and was
inspired to get back into something she had been doing
since she was a girl: dancing.


“I decided not to fall into darkness but show the world that
I was a strong person and continue my passion for dance.
My mother was shocked but happily agreed to support me,”
she said.


“My friends started ignoring me, people showed me
sympathy, but it was pity. I didn’t want pity.”


Most of the dance studios near her originally rejected her
because of her disability. Eventually she found one,
Rockstar Academy (fitting name!) in nearby Chandigarh who
accepted her. Subhreet decided to take her journey to
recover one huge step further and audition for India’s Got
Talent.


She got as far as the finals in the show, and although she
didn’t win, the platform that she had on the talent show
ensured her story went far and wide. Subhreet isn’t angry
that she didn’t win, because most of all she proved to
herself and to everyone around her (especially the
naysayers) that she is just as capable of achieving
anything that a person with two legs can.


“My life has changed completely. I have seen the darkest
days but now everything seems beautiful. People recognize
me when I go out, they ask me for photographs and
autographs. It is an amazing feeling.”


She is known affectionately as the “one-legged dancer”.
Dancing was never something she wanted to do
professionally, but her life has taken her in a direction she
never could’ve imagined.


Just as other amputees’ stories inspired Subhreet, her own
journey of determination despite the odds will no doubt
make an impact on many other lives. In a country like India
which is still fiercely traditional, a girl with one leg could be
considered an “outcast”, yet this brave young woman isn’t
about to let tradition, culture or stigma stop her from being
an absolute rockstar at life!


Her story reminds us of Amy Purdy , the snowboarder who
literally grabbed life by the balls after losing her limbs. She
has given a Ted Talk, became the first ever double-
amputee to compete at an Olympic level this year at the
Sochi Olympics, and started her own organization to raise
money for other amputee athletes who want to find the best
prosthetics for their sport.


Both of these strong women are examples of how, when
you’ve got nothing more to lose, how do you start
winning? And it is a lesson to those of us who may not
have lost any part of our bodies, but need a good
inspirational story to kick us up the butt. Will a setback in
your life make you give up or rise up?


Ability always stand firm in disABILITY.


NEVER GIVE UP.


[url=girltalkhq.com/one-legged-dancer-stuns-indias-got-talent-audience-judges/]CREDIT TO[/url]

All we ever need is to be determined at heart.....