Against all odds bilateral amputee completes associate degree
Four years after first he enrolled at the University of Guyana in 2016, Melvin Pyle completed his Associate Degree in Civil Engineering and walked the virtual stage last Friday.
The journey, he told Stabroek Weekend, was particularly fulfilling because he persevered even after losing both his hands in an industrial accident in the middle of his third semester.
“It was December 17, 2017. I lost both my hands and had to relearn how to do so many things, so I took some years off from UG but now I have my Associates and I’ve finished my first semester towards the degree. My disability was not the end of the road, but the beginning of a new path,” he said.
While Pyle is open about what it took for him to recover including the month in hospital and months of therapy at the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre he cannot speak about the day of his accident.
“I don’t like to talk about that day. When you reach to the point of death, talking about it makes it fresh so I don’t really want to go back there,” an emotional Pyle shared. He will not identify his former employer either, noting that the matter is currently before the High Court.
His recovery, he said, was frustrating in many ways.
“It was challenging. You have to relearn a lot of things. Figure out how to do things differently. You want to do the same things, but you have to find ways how to get them done,” he noted. “I was able to get prosthetics – mechanical ones – from an overseas company which the rehabilitation centre contacted on my behalf and that has been a great help. The centre has been a great help.”
He is also full of praise for his current employer, the University of Guyana, which he said has been supportive in every possible way.
On his return to the Civil Engineering programme, Pyle was employed part time by UG’s Facilities Maintenance Department on the strength of his Certificate in Building and Civil Engineering from the Guyana Technical Institute (GTI) and has received counselling and other psychological support from the university outside of the accommodations offered in the classroom.
“They have helped me with a lot in every aspect you can think about: financially, emotionally, and psychologically. They also
provide me accommodations like extra time to finish a test. If the test was one hour I might get two because they know I write a lot slower,” he explained.
Asked how he coped with the impact of COVID19 on his learning environment, Pyle said the lockdown was a positive development for him as he was able to spend time with his four children.
“Yes [the pandemic] has it negatives but I was able to be around my children when usually I’m working
or studying outside the home. This time was good for us,” he said.
The time together became even more important when Tina, Pyle’s wife of 13 years and the mother of his four children, died.
“She was in hospital for 21 days and they were treating her for an autoimmune disease. They said her immune system was attacking her body that’s why she couldn’t walk or anything but when she died and they did the autopsy she just had cold in her
spine,” he lamented.
In his bereavement, he has held both his children and his faith close.
“Through my struggles, I called upon God. I have found that to have God is to have everything. I know you want to hear about how we are managing financially but for me God is managing everything,” he stressed while acknowledging the support his children have received from his mother and sister-inlaw who live close by.