Dubai: A young Indian worker, who was paralysed after a bicycle accident in October, was repatriated on Tuesday morning, a social worker said.
Srinivas Salvala, from Karimnagar in the Indian state of Telangana, was sent home with the help of the Indian mission and his colleagues, said Prasad Sreedharan, a social worker in Ras Al Khaimah.
He said 30-year-old Salvala, who worked as a survey labourer with the Public Works and Services Department in Ras Al Khaimah, had met with the accident while he was riding a bicycle on off-duty hours on October 28.
“The cycle hit a small pothole on the roadside and he fell down on the street. His head hit the ground and he suffered multiple fractures in the cervical and dorsal spine.”
Due to the fractured neck, Srinivas became semi-paralysed. “The doctors wanted to operate on him. But due to non-availability of special instruments, the surgery was delayed initially.”
“The hospital then purchased the necessary medical equipment though the use of it is not covered under his insurance, after his senior officials took up his case with the hospital. But by then, he had developed bedsore and fever, which further complicated the situation and he became fully paralysed,” Sreedharan said.
The patient’s relatives then sought the help of Prasad to communicate with the Consul-General of India in Dubai, Vipul, for repatriating him to his hometown for further treatment.
On receiving his request to support Salvala, Sreedharan said, Vipul visited the former in Saqr Hospital in Ras Al Khaimah last month.
“The consulate provided the ticket to fly him home on a stretcher and also the return ticket for a person to accompany him, from the Indian Community Welfare Fund.”
He said the colleagues of Salvala also came together to pool money for his treatment.
One of them, Sandeep Vellalloor, said the colleagues have also decided to support his family by sending money for them every month till he can start working again.
“We have been working together for nine years. He was never absent and never had any accident even while working in Jebel Jais. It is very unfortunate that his fate changed like this with a fall.”
He said Salvala got married last year and had come back just three months after his first visit to his wife. “His salary is Dh700. We have decided to send that amount to his family every month till he starts working again.”
Srinivas was accompanied by his brother Ramesh Salvala, who started working as a labourer in Sharjah six months ago and had been taking care of his brother in the hospital. They flew on an Air India flight from Dubai to Hyderabad in the early hours of Tuesday.
