Download 33 year old Danny Vithal has only one leg but he can run one kilometer in just four minutes.
He can also climb a tree, jump and rides a bike 25 kilometers every day to work.
He is able to this with the use of a prosthesis limb made locally in his hometown of Jaipur, India.
Losing his left leg below the knee also lead him to the love of his life.
Jasvinder Seghal has his extraordinary story.
When Danny was 15 years old, he used to sell dry fruits in the capital of Delhi.
“I was running to board a train when I suddenly fell down. My left limb was crushed by the train and I was in coma for 45 days. It was very painful.”
He was in hospital for four months and doctors couldn’t save his left leg below the knee.
It took him one year to be able to stand alone again with the help of crutches.
One day, his Uncle advised him to go to the city of Jaipur to get a free prosthesis leg from an international renowned centre there .
“My Uncle gave me the address of the prosthesis centre. I came on my own for the first time to the city of Jaipur. Here I was provided prosthesis limb for free. The prosthesis proved to be an incredible gift for me as I could stand, walk and even run with it. It took me one and a half months for me to learn to use the new limb but now I can do what ever I want. I can even lift a hundred kilograms.”
Danny now works at the factory where his plastic limbs were made.....the popularly known “Jaipur Foot’ centre.
Each year they make at least twenty-two thousand prosthesis limbs and provide them free of charge to people in need in India and across the world.
Today Danny is fixing a prosthesis limb for 52-year-old Moti Lal.
Danny asks him ‘does this hurt or is it comfortable? If it feels uncomfortable we can fix it’ he adds.
Moti lost his right leg in a car accident. For three years he has not be able to stand without help.
But with the new plastic limb Danny is fitting, his life will change.
“Danny is like a God to me who has blessed me with the gift. Doctors are like God and he is one of them. Now I can walk on my own and can see the world by myself. There could have been no greater gift than this for me.”
Danny adds: “I feel so happy when ever I make Jaipur foot for any limb less person me. I know what it’s like to not have limbs.”
It was at work that Danny met his wife.
Meena Thakur had come to the clinic in need of a new Jaipur foot.
“I lost my right foot when I tried to commit suicide by jumping in front of a train along with my boy friend at the time. As he was from a different caste my parents did not allow us to marry so we tried to commit suicide together. We survived and later married and had seven children. Two of them died. Suddenly one day he disappeared leaving me all alone in the world. ”
To support her family she opened up a street food stall near the prosthesis limb centre.
Danny came regularly for lunch....
“Danny owed me some money for his meals and I use to ask him regularly for the money. We come from the same city of Gujrat so a bond developed between us. He was willing to marry me along with my five children. Today we have seven children and Danny takes care of all of them.”
Anita is the eldest daughter in the family.
She is only 8 years younger than Danny.
“There can be no better parents than I have. My father left my mother along with all of the children. Then David came to rescue of our family. He helped me in my studies also. Today, I am married and have one child. We don’t look like Father-Daughter and people often misjudge us as husband and wife, ha…ha…ha…”
They now live in a house provided by the Jaipur foot centre and Danny rides a bike fifty kilometers to work everyday.
He rides with great ease and skill. One would never guess that he only had one leg.
