One Step at a Time
New legs
for victim of Kosovo land mine
By JOANNE WASSERMAN
Daily News Staff Writer
Since her whirlwind arrival from Kosovo this month, Ibadete Thaqi has become a typical American teenager.
The 14-year-old loves Ricky Martin and Britney Spears, and on a recent night she stayed up late watching "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me," giggling about Dr. Evil with three other teens.
But nothing can mask the tragedy in her life, or the hardships she still faces.
 |
 |
| Ibadete Thaqi, 14, undergoes physical therapy at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan. |
Last spring, as her family returned from exile to their war-torn village of Llapushnik, Ibadete's legs were blown off by a land mine hidden under a pail.
Instead of going to school each day, Ibadete is learning different lessons in Manhattan at the Hospital for Special Surgery: how to walk on her artificial legs, how to get up out of a chair, how to stand and how to fall safely.
"Strong," she said, thumping her chest, using one of the many English words she has learned in recent weeks.
She and her therapists are working hard to get her ready to return home by the end of April.
In a tiny rehab room at the hospital yesterday morning, Ibadete took small steps, sometimes resting on a walker, sometimes using metal crutches.
For two weeks, the hospital staff has worked to fit and refit her artificial legs so they feel just right for the girl who has charmed doctors and just about all who meet her.
Finally, a week ago, Ibadete stood and walked.
"When I stood for the first time, it was like a victory," she said through her interpreter, Mimoza Necaj.
Ibadete recognizes her good fortune, remembering her time in the hospital in Pristina, where "there were many people, children and adults, missing their legs."
Ibadete conceded she has terrible moments of sadness, such as at a party Sunday "where there were people dancing and I started to cry because I couldn't."
"When I think of how I was before, I feel sad," said Ibadete. "Now I am progressing."
Her spirit, captured on a TV news show, helped get her free medical care and many other kindnesses from New Yorkers. She and her mother, Squri, are staying with an Albanian family on Staten Island.
"She holds court in the hospital cafeteria at lunchtime," said Glenn Garrison, director of the prosthetic and orthotic facility, who explained that well-wishers make a point of having lunch with Ibadete.
"It's easy to forget she's 14 because she's so independent and strong-willed," he said. Her mother said Ibadete has always been "the happiest in the house" of six children.
She needs all her inner strength. Each day, she faces grueling physical therapy designed to build upper-body strength and teach her how to maneuver her new legs.
Ibadete and her mother arrive by private ambulette at the hospital about 10 a.m. each day. Working to condition her upper body, the teen uses machines designed to strengthen muscles in her arms and back.
"Upper-body strength makes it easier to use a walker, crutches or canes," said physical therapist Lorna King. "She won't always have her legs on, so she'll need her upper-body strength to get out of bed each morning."
Slowly, the physical therapy has shifted to learning to balance and walk on her new legs, which Garrison compared to "walking on stilts. She needs time, and we are trying to give her as much as we can."
Before she returns home, Ibadete wants to see the Statue of Liberty, go to the World Trade Center and see Central Park.
But she does want to go home, to return to the simplicity of her life there. "I want to see my friends, to go to school."
To help cover living and other expenses for Ibadete and her mother, send donations to: Ibadete Thaqi Fund, New York Association for New Americans (NYANA), 17 Battery Place, New York, N.Y., 10004-1102, or call (212) 898-4104.
Original Publication Date: 01/28/2000
From: The New York Daily News