Quad Amputee Turns Bronze Medalist

Brut India

Shalini Saraswathi lost all her limbs to a bacterial infection. But she was not letting it get in the way of her winning in life.

Transcript

00:00Three things not to tell someone with a disability. A, that if you were in my place you would have killed yourself

00:05Well, what you're telling me is that my life is not worth living. B, if you've had an injury or a ligament tear

00:11Don't tell me you understand my pain. It's not the same thing

00:14C, don't call me inspirational just because I've managed to survive my disability and to be okay with it

00:21I'm not trying to be inspirational. I'm just living my life to the fullest

00:30What do you do if you if you don't get over it?

00:56What are your options?

00:58Right, you can either

01:00Feel awful and terrible about what has happened and that is a reality

01:04You know, obviously life has changed and it has been traumatic. It has changed my life forever

01:08But what what what good comes of it by not getting over it?

01:29I

01:34Was always thinking whether

01:36Things are ever going to be okay. I was thinking

01:39Would I ever be able to walk? I was thinking whether

01:43Whether life would ever be normal like would I ever get to a time where?

01:49The life that I knew

01:51Would would would ever be possible again. I just wanted to get through one day at a time

01:56So it teaches you one is that life is fleeting. You don't hold anything at all in your life

02:02It's you don't control anything. You really don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow

02:10I came back to India did not know I picked up the infection and I was alright for about two months

02:16And from there things went down south because I pretty much went into a coma. I had a multi-organ failure

02:22I was I was pretty much told that I wouldn't survive it

02:26And but I survived it, of course

02:32I didn't I didn't want to run. It wasn't something that I wanted to do. I just wanted to get healthy

02:38I wanted to be able to do basic things like walk

02:42And like make it look like it was natural and not with prosthetic legs

02:46So I met my coach and I was basically looking for anyone that would help me kind of do some basic things in life

02:52We and he kind of put the idea that you know

02:55We should try running and initially it was just I think for the first one and a half two years

02:59I only walked and we slowly realized that we could run with prosthetic legs. It was a very exciting moment

03:04There's something empowering. There was something about being able to take control back with your body

03:09That was quite liberating for me. And I always say this that running for me was cathartic

03:15I don't like to run because I like to run I like to run because I like the person that I'm after I done because

03:19I feel good about myself

03:22I

03:29Miss the most after an amputation is not really the bigger things in life, but the smaller things

03:35like walking on grass or

03:37the way your feet feels when the seat takes away the sand from under your feet or

03:43Holding hands or just the need to caress someone and those are the things that we've always taken for granted in our lives

03:50And it's something that I really enjoy doing

03:52Because it helps me put out

03:55What I think what I perceive the world to be

03:59And maybe you never know who's out there who's going to listen to it and be okay with their lives

04:13What really makes a difference in your life is you being able to hold on to yourself

04:17That's one and the other thing that it teaches you is that all the things that we fret about in life are not important

04:23at all

04:25I

04:26Could have been the richest person in the world and that wouldn't have made my life easier

04:30All you have is just this moment today to make it come

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