ID :
127894
Tue, 06/15/2010 - 00:39
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/127894
The shortlink copeid
Feature: BED-RIDDEN FOR 34 YEARS
By Otniel Tamindael
Jakarta, June 14 (ANTARA) - No one had more reason to cling to life than Surina.
The fourth daughter in a family of five children, Surina grew up in the poor rural hamlet of Parit Pangeran in Sungai Ambawang village, Kubu Raya district, a 40-minute ride from West Kalimantan's provincial capital of Pontianak.
The entire family live in a small, rickety house with crumbling walls and leaky roof.
Their only means of support is a rubber plantation where Pusara, Surina's 67-year-old father, works.
But the family lives in extreme poverty because the sum of money Surina's father gets from his rubber plantation job is too small to keep the family adequately fed.
Now Surina has for 34 years been lying helplessly in bed with no hope of recovery.
The 34-year old woman has to be treated like a baby since childhood because of damage to her nerve system as a result of an improperly treated fever.
It certainly is a tremendous strain on Masirah (65), Surina's mother, who has to bear the daily tasks of helping her daughter.
Therefore, the family is in need of reassurance and a lifting of the burden which now lies heavily on their shoulders.
It had been a long night for the Pusara family when Surina awoke one night with high fever and suffering from stiffness when she was two years old.
The family was in panic but did nothing as they had no money at all to take Surina to a doctor.
Anxious for a second opinion, they took Surina to a local shaman, a priest who used magic to cure the sick.
But the result was discouraging because something happened to Surina later.
"Not long after my daughter was treated by the shaman, she had an epileptic seizure," Masirah told journalists who visited the family recently.
Now the fair-skinned and pretty Surina, whose large brown eyes normally flash with spunky brightness, is strangely limp in a hammock.
Surina had to be treated like a baby since childhood because of damage to her nerve system by an improperly treated fever.
She spends most of her time lying in a hammock which her mother and father take turns in swaying.
After she was taken to the local shaman, Surina seemed to have been cured of her fever and the family thought she was alright until she reached the age of 3 years old.
But what happened then? Here is what Surina's mother said.
"My daughter should have been able to walk when she was two or three years old but sad to say her condition got even worse : she was unable to talk and walk," Masirah said.
Since then, Masirah and Pusara just left Surina's fate to the Almighty and have been taken care of her with all the love they had under extremely indigent conditions.
Pusara said now he spends most of his time swaying his daughter in her hammock put up in her bedroom.
"After she is tired of being swayed, we move her to a special two-by-one meter room to prevent her from disturbing the other family members at home," Pusara said.
He explained that if his daughter was let free, she would destroy everything she found and disturb the people at home.
Pusara admitted that they brought Surina to a nearby clinic two years ago.
The doctor there told them that Surina was suffering from a nerve disorder and this had caused her to behave abnormally.
Aprianti, a staffer of Nanda Dian Nusantara Foundation in Pontianak city, said that after obtaining first hand information about Surina's real condition, she would report the case to the Kubu Raya district's Social Services Office for further help.
"We will report the case to the local Social Services Office before deciding whether or not Surina has to be admitted to a mental institution ," Aprianti said, after expressing her sympathy to bed-ridden Surina's parents.
Yet when we are confronted with deep trouble and suffering, and illness, people may express their sympathy, relatives can visit with us and say a simple prayer with us, but in the end the problem remains ours to face and grapple with - alone.
In such a situation, we have nowhere to look but upward.
In the light of all these, we should learn that when problems and suffering appear insurmountable, there is a saving strength other than our own.
Keep in mind that we are not alone in the face of adversity. Above all, we have to become attuned to myriad ways in which God answers our prayers.
Indeed, He speaks unfailingly through the trouble, pain, suffering, and sickness of all who seek Him, if they will but listen.
The Old Testament of Job states: "Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth troubles spring out of the ground; yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward."
Then in his book, The Problem of Pain, CS Lewis said suffering is the common lot of all people everywhere, believer or non believer, educated or uneducated, and rich or poor alike.
Suffering or trouble is one of God's ways of speaking to us, of awakening us to our need of Him, and calling us to Himself.
"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. If our pains and suffering lead us to Him, it has become a blessed and precious friend," CS Lewis said.
Jakarta, June 14 (ANTARA) - No one had more reason to cling to life than Surina.
The fourth daughter in a family of five children, Surina grew up in the poor rural hamlet of Parit Pangeran in Sungai Ambawang village, Kubu Raya district, a 40-minute ride from West Kalimantan's provincial capital of Pontianak.
The entire family live in a small, rickety house with crumbling walls and leaky roof.
Their only means of support is a rubber plantation where Pusara, Surina's 67-year-old father, works.
But the family lives in extreme poverty because the sum of money Surina's father gets from his rubber plantation job is too small to keep the family adequately fed.
Now Surina has for 34 years been lying helplessly in bed with no hope of recovery.
The 34-year old woman has to be treated like a baby since childhood because of damage to her nerve system as a result of an improperly treated fever.
It certainly is a tremendous strain on Masirah (65), Surina's mother, who has to bear the daily tasks of helping her daughter.
Therefore, the family is in need of reassurance and a lifting of the burden which now lies heavily on their shoulders.
It had been a long night for the Pusara family when Surina awoke one night with high fever and suffering from stiffness when she was two years old.
The family was in panic but did nothing as they had no money at all to take Surina to a doctor.
Anxious for a second opinion, they took Surina to a local shaman, a priest who used magic to cure the sick.
But the result was discouraging because something happened to Surina later.
"Not long after my daughter was treated by the shaman, she had an epileptic seizure," Masirah told journalists who visited the family recently.
Now the fair-skinned and pretty Surina, whose large brown eyes normally flash with spunky brightness, is strangely limp in a hammock.
Surina had to be treated like a baby since childhood because of damage to her nerve system by an improperly treated fever.
She spends most of her time lying in a hammock which her mother and father take turns in swaying.
After she was taken to the local shaman, Surina seemed to have been cured of her fever and the family thought she was alright until she reached the age of 3 years old.
But what happened then? Here is what Surina's mother said.
"My daughter should have been able to walk when she was two or three years old but sad to say her condition got even worse : she was unable to talk and walk," Masirah said.
Since then, Masirah and Pusara just left Surina's fate to the Almighty and have been taken care of her with all the love they had under extremely indigent conditions.
Pusara said now he spends most of his time swaying his daughter in her hammock put up in her bedroom.
"After she is tired of being swayed, we move her to a special two-by-one meter room to prevent her from disturbing the other family members at home," Pusara said.
He explained that if his daughter was let free, she would destroy everything she found and disturb the people at home.
Pusara admitted that they brought Surina to a nearby clinic two years ago.
The doctor there told them that Surina was suffering from a nerve disorder and this had caused her to behave abnormally.
Aprianti, a staffer of Nanda Dian Nusantara Foundation in Pontianak city, said that after obtaining first hand information about Surina's real condition, she would report the case to the Kubu Raya district's Social Services Office for further help.
"We will report the case to the local Social Services Office before deciding whether or not Surina has to be admitted to a mental institution ," Aprianti said, after expressing her sympathy to bed-ridden Surina's parents.
Yet when we are confronted with deep trouble and suffering, and illness, people may express their sympathy, relatives can visit with us and say a simple prayer with us, but in the end the problem remains ours to face and grapple with - alone.
In such a situation, we have nowhere to look but upward.
In the light of all these, we should learn that when problems and suffering appear insurmountable, there is a saving strength other than our own.
Keep in mind that we are not alone in the face of adversity. Above all, we have to become attuned to myriad ways in which God answers our prayers.
Indeed, He speaks unfailingly through the trouble, pain, suffering, and sickness of all who seek Him, if they will but listen.
The Old Testament of Job states: "Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth troubles spring out of the ground; yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward."
Then in his book, The Problem of Pain, CS Lewis said suffering is the common lot of all people everywhere, believer or non believer, educated or uneducated, and rich or poor alike.
Suffering or trouble is one of God's ways of speaking to us, of awakening us to our need of Him, and calling us to Himself.
"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. If our pains and suffering lead us to Him, it has become a blessed and precious friend," CS Lewis said.
