Having lost his legs in Dubai accident, man loses his wife too

Says his wife abandoned him and their daughter


Umer Farooq December 11, 2017
Says his wife abandoned him and their daughter. PHOTO: FILE

PESHAWAR: While the old adage goes ‘till death do us part’, it seemed that one bride did not mean her wedding vows after she allegedly abandoned her husband who had been left paralysed following a traffic accident in the UAE two years ago.

Confined to a wheelchair, 34-year old Bizwar Gul’s eyes search for support. Ever since he lost his legs in the accident and the divorce from his wife, Gul has been left all alone to tend to his five-year-old daughter. This is, thus, not a story of compassion, but a cry for help.

Dubai-based ailing Pakistani, family seek help to fly back home

“Once you become worthless [restricted to a wheelchair], nobody cares and just who on earth lives with a person who has been crippled for life,” Gul explained his predicament while pointing towards his listless legs.

When Gul found himself awake at the hospital, reconciling his thoughts about losing his legs in the fatal accident, he asked himself, “what else could be worse than losing your legs?”

He would get an answer pretty soon, but it was not something he had expected in his wildest dreams.

“She filed a case for Khula [divorce],” the Peshawar native said as he recounted how he stumbled from one crisis to another.

“We were living a happy life,” he said, reminiscing about their life before the accident which basically turned his life on his head.

“But after she saw me sitting in a wheelchair and crippled for life, dependent on others, she left me and her daughter at the same time,” Gul cried during his visit to an Ability Sports Festival organised by International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for sportspeople and children with disability in the provincial capital last week.

“This is nature,” Gul shrugged, explaining, “I mean no one would spend their whole life with a person completely dependent on others.”

But Gul said that not having his legs was not as bad as a broken heart, adding that he had a condition which required fixing a filter inside his heart to sustain heartbeat, but the devices expired three years ago.

Gul was visiting the festival, hoping to find someone who could help him —not to walk but to remove or change the filter.

“I am not begging for my legs since I can live without my legs, but for my heart,” he said, adding “I am requesting for someone to come forward, to change or remove the expired filter since the procedure is only possible abroad and costs around Rs4 million which is beyond my means.”

Canadian boxer among four killed in Dubai car crash

Asked how does he get by, Gul stated that he and his five-year-old daughter live with his brothers. But they too cannot afford the expensive heart procedure.

A large number of children and athletes attended the festival at the Hayatabad Sports Complex where differently-abled people played a cricket match, tug-of-war and tried out other sporting events.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11th, 2017.

COMMENTS (7)

Shakeel A. | 6 years ago | Reply I am sure he would have done the same if his wife became disabled....
saad | 6 years ago | Reply How Can we help please
VIEW MORE COMMENTS
Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ