Artificial limb lets Dear the donkey stand on all four legs

Mumbai If a stray donkey is now able to stand and trot around — a year after he lost one of his legs in a hit-and-run accident, the credit must go to volunteers at the Thane Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (TSPCA) hospital and an engineer.

In a first of its kind post-surgical act, a team of TSPCA volunteers, led by senior surgeon Dr Vikram Dave and Dipankar, an engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), has fitted a prosthetic limb on the one-and-a half-year-old donkey after amputating his wounded leg.

"After a full year, much of which was spent in pain and a lot of it limping around on three legs, the donkey is now on all four legs and happily trotting around," Thane SPCA president Shakuntala Majumdar told Gulf News on Monday.

Hit by speeding car

The donkey was just four months old when he was knocked down by a speeding car on the Eastern Express highway near Thane, on January 8, 2011. On hearing about the accident, SPCA volunteers brought the foal to the hospital.

"The damage to the leg was so extensive our senior surgeon had to be rushed to the hospital to assess the damage," Majumdar said.

According to Majumdar, the condition of the leg was so bad amputation was inevitable. "Dr Dave and his team members at the hospital went ahead with the surgery and stitched the wound," Majumdar said.

Cattle shed

Dr Dave fondly named the foal "Dear". Dear recovered in the cattle shed until his wound was dry.

"For nearly ten months, our staff pampered the baby to recover and become stronger to stand on three legs. He was encouraged to walk without any help and he obliged and managed to stand up on his own will!" Majumdar said.

Preparing an artificial limb proved to be a daunting task for the team. "When we began work on making an artificial leg, the donkey must have been six to seven months old. As the work progressed and we made a few samples, they would not fit on the donkey as he was growing fast and getting heavier by the week," she said.

After several trials, Dr Dave and IIT engineer Dipankar were able to prepare an artificial limb that fitted Dear.

Softly padded

"Finally, on February 16, IIT engineer Dipankar configured a softly padded artificial leg for Dear who is happily using it to support himself," she said.

Not satisfied with the limb they have made for Dear, TSPCA volunteers are still trying to give him a better limb to enable him to roam freely on his own. A prototype limb is being worked upon by Dipankar, Majumdar said.