Acid attack victim engaged on V-Day
Pramodini suffered 80% burns and lost her eyesight when a spurned lover attacked her
For 25-year-old acid attack victim, Pramodini, this was the perfect Valentine’s Day as she and her long time friend Saroj Sahu, who stood by her in the most trying of times, got engaged yesterday.
Way back in 2009, in Odisha’s Jagatpur, a young Pramodini not only suffered 80 per cent burns but even lost her eyesight when a spurned lover attacked her with acid.
Sahu’s unwithering support helped heal her emotional scars, while medical treatment helped her gain 20 per cent eyesight.
“I was critically injured in the attack on that fateful day when I was returning from college after appearing in an examination I had to be taken home from the government hospital where I was admitted after nine months as the family had no funds for treatment,” Pramodini told PTI.
After having spent five years in bed, Pramodini was admitted to a private hospital near her house in 2014 where she was introduced to Sahu, a medical representative by profession, through a nurse.
Sahu, took it upon himself to help Pramodini get on feet. And she did it, in four months, when senior doctors had declared it would take at least ten months.
“He even quit his job to stand by me during those trying times,” Pramodini recalled.
Pramodini, vividly remembers that it was on January 5, 2016 that she came to Delhi for proper medical treatment after getting in touch with the ‘Stop Acid Attack Campaign’.
Meanwhile, her departure made Sahu realise he loved her and days later, he called to propose marriage.
“She was only a dear friend till then, but when she left Odisha, I found what she meant to me. And on January 14, I confessed my feelings for her on phone and proposed to marry her,” Sahu said.
Pramodini and Sahu, who is 26 now, took their first step towards making their bond a lifelong one at the ‘Sheroes Hangout Cafe’ here, which is run by the “Stop Acid Attack Campaign.