It has been nearly six years.

Ms Azlin Amran suffered a severely damaged spinal cord, fractured pelvis, punctured lungs and such terrible abrasions to her face that the nurses advised her not to look into the mirror for a month.

During those long years, she had to piece her life together again, re-framing her hopes and dreams so that despair would not destroy her.

Survive she did, though she changed forever.

Ms Azlin, now 33, remembers the day – Jan 28, 2013 – only too well. She was on her way to meet a friend for dinner.

Ms Azlin recalled that on that fateful day, when she stepped onto the escalator at Tanah Merah MRT Station, there was no barrier blocking the entrance to it to signal it was under maintenance.

Nor did she notice that the cover of the third step was missing before she fell into the escalator pit.

She was stuck in the waist-deep pit for about 30 to 45 minutes before the Singapore Civil Defence Force arrived and rescued her.

Overnight, she went from being a carefree soul who loved the outdoors and travelling, to one who had to depend on others for the most basic of tasks, like going to the toilet.

The probability of her walking again was 3%, the doctor had said, but her mother had not known how to break the news to her.

“I felt imprisoned in my own body. I couldn’t think of how life could go on when I could not even do the most basic things on my own, like getting out of bed or taking a shower,” said Ms Azlin, who was in Changi General Hospital for three months.

“In the first year after my accident, I cried when I spoke about my past, present or future.

“My past became something that was endearing, my present was something I resented and my future, something I feared.”

She prayed every day for a miracle that she would walk again.

It was her only thought and it consumed her. The turnaround from this bleak emotional and mental state occurred only a year after the accident.

It began when she attended the SPD Transition to Employment programme, which helps people disabled from an accident or illness re-join the workforce through therapy and job placement aid.

SPD is a charity that helps people with disabilities.

She received physiotherapy, occupational therapy and counselling for a year and gradually became stronger physically and emotionally.

The support of family and friends and the chance to work through her grief, as well as meeting others with spinal cord injuries who are leading independent lives, gave her hope.

Two years after her fall, she started work at the SPD in the same programme that had helped her during her recovery process.

There was an opening and she bagged the job of employment support specialist, aiding those who have become impaired to return to work.

She enjoys the meaningful job.

“Before the accident, I led a carefree life but there was not a lot of meaning to tie it together.

“After the accident, I felt there was more purpose because of the work that I do,” said Ms Azlin.

“Every day, I meet people who acquire physical impairments and I enjoy journeying with them as they learn that being happy and going back to work again is possible.”

After the accident, she also found love again. She met her husband, a 32-year-old IT designer, online.

She was looking for a friend, but love blossomed. They have been married for two years.

She said: “He accepted me for who I am and loved me for who I am. He has been a source of strength and inspiration to me.”

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Source: The Straits Times, 24 October 2018