A lightning strike changed Yousuf’s life forever

After being knocked unconscious during a thunderstorm and turned away from the urgent medical treatment he needed, Yousuf lost one of his eyes and had to have one leg amputated at his home. Years later, he lost his sight in his remaining eye, leaving him unable to walk.

Yousuf has come up against decades-long hardships but through his determination, the support and love of his devoted wife Helena, along with a sight-saving cataract operation, life is finally looking better. Here, Yousuf shares his remarkable story.

“I have been living in this village for generations. My childhood was very difficult; I lost my parents. I started to pull a rickshaw to support my family, then I set up a shop. I used to sell tea, [and] betel leaves.

“In 1995, I was electrocuted in a thunderstorm which damaged my eyes and injured me severely. I was returning home from my shop and on the way I was I got struck by the thunderstorm. I lost all my senses. This was when I lost my eye.”

“The other patients objected to me being there and since I was waiting but not receiving my treatment, the hospital rejected me.

“My wife Helena was with me. When I was rejected by the hospital, I thought I would not be able to survive. I thought I would die any day.

“I returned home and a village doctor put some medicine on my wounds.

“The amputation happened in the courtyard, in my home.

“He told me my leg had already been amputated from the inside, so he cut that leg. After several days my wounds got infected and I was taken back to the hospital, they admitted me to another clinic where they treated the wound and I gradually recovered.”

Despite losing all vision in one of his eyes and losing one of his legs, Yousuf’s disabilities didn’t hinder his determination to work. Using crutches to support himself, he continued to run his shop. But from 2003 he started to experience problems in his remaining eye.

“For 18 years, I could not actually see anything properly. I lost vision in my right eye; I could not see anything, I used to stumble. I went to several eye camps but the doctor told me my right eye is permanently damaged, so they suggested that I carry on and try to cope. So I believed that and didn’t seek any further treatment.

“I tried to run my shop, but I faced several difficulties, many customers took things from my shop without my permission and without paying. I also could not detect what they took, so I started to incur heavy loss. I decided to rent the shop out and now am forced to lead a very poor life. I hardly get two square meals per day.”

“My daughter and her husband live in Dhaka; she works in a garment factory and he pulls a rickshaw to support my family. She has two children. I have to look after them and we are living a very poor life now.

“I had to seek help from my wife, or if she was not close by I had to touch walls, trees, anything around me to walk, so that was the most difficult [thing]. She used to carry me around and beg for food. In that difficult time my relatives did not provide any support. My brother and his family live next door but they’re also very poor and have to sell their manual labour.

“After 18 years, one day I heard that there was an announcement through miking. They were saying that anybody could have a free medical treatment for their eyes.”