Indian girl scales Mt Everest on prosthetic leg

LOBUCHE, SOLUKHUMBU, May 26:  Climbing Everest is considered gutsy even for able-bodied people for the risks involved in attempting the feat. But an Indian girl has surprised the whole world by scaling the summit on a prosthetic leg.

Arunima Sinha, 25, of Uttar Pradesh, who had her left leg amputated two years ago, scaled the 8,848 meters peak at 10:55 am on Tuesday. “We reached the summit on 21st May and I forgot all the difficulties we had faced on the way,” said the former national volleyball player of India on Saturday.
The six-member Indian team led by India´s former Border Security Force staffer Love Raj Singh was accompanied by nine Sherpas on their way to the successful accent of the summit. “We reached the base camp on May 16 and completed our Everest mission six days later,” said Singh, who is married to a girl of Nepali origin from Darjeeling, India.

“We got good deal of support from Sherpas who accompanied us to the summit,” said Sinha, who was forced to amputate her left leg after a car accident on April 11, 2011. “Though it was not much difficult at the summit, I unknowingly stepped over a dead body of a Bangladeshi climber on the way to the summit and I got frightened,” Sinha told Republica in an interview at Lobuche while her team was on its way back to Namche Bazaar.

Sinha, a graduate in law, considers the car accident that cost her leg as the turning point of her life. “I was hospitalized for six months after the accident and was at the crossroads of my life. I could have been bedridden throughout my life if I had negative thoughts. But I tried to look for positive values of life and became successful in climbing the Everest. I do not think I am inferior to any other human being. I have been getting congratulatory messages from everywhere,” said Sinha.

The expedition was organized by Asian Trekking.

source: republica,26 may 2013