Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Murder brings flashback hell for shot girl, 5
THE murder of Olivia Pratt-Korbel has set off terrifying flashbacks for Thusha Kamaleswaran, who was just five when she was shot in the chest.
Thusha, now 17, was caught in the crossfire while at her uncle’s shop in Stockwell, South London.
She tells the Sunday Mirror: “When I heard about Olivia I thought ‘How can this happen again? It’s heartbreaking that she had her whole life to live and is now gone.
“I started having flashbacks to the day in my uncle’s shop when I was hit as I danced through the aisles.
“It made me really emotional, angry and devastated that, 11 years on, this is still happening. The person who shot Olivia is not human to be able to just wipe out the life of a young girl like this in a split second with a gun.”
In a message to Olivia’s mum Cheryl, she adds: “If there is anything I can do to help you, me and my family are here for you. I am sending Olivia’s family so much love now and want to offer my support as a survivor of gun crime.”
Thusha was gunned down on March 29, 2011, as she visited her uncle’s grocery shop.
CCTV showed her dancing seconds before the attack – then lying helplessly on the floor.
She went into cardiac arrest twice and had emergency open-heart surgery in the shop. The bullet hit her in the chest and passed through the seventh vertebrae of her spine, leaving her paralysed from the waist down. Thusha, who says gun and knife crime sentencing is too light, adds: “The men who shot me got 14 and 17 years. In a short time they will be free. It’s always in the back of my mind that they may come after me or do this to someone else.
“Despite my injuries I consider myself fortunate to be alive. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“I’ll never be able to do things we all take for granted. I don’t yet know if I will be able to have children. I do believe I’m stronger from the experience because I’ve had to be, it’s been an 11-year journey. I have now got faith in God, I’ve come to terms with what happened.”
Thusha, who lives in Ilford, East London, with her parents, brother and sister, can stand using a walker and take a few steps unaided. She dreams of walking normally one day, but accepts that is a long way off.
She adds: “I’m now able to do most things myself in my wheelchair, which is great. I hope one day to be dancing again, even if it takes time. Patience has taught me a lot.”
Thusha is hugely grateful to the doctors who saved her life at King’s College Hospital, South London – and is now hoping for a career in medicine herself.