A beautiful athlete has shown off her new robotic arms after she lost the lower part of her own limbs when she suffered an electric shock.
Handball player Karol Michelle Bastidas Ricaurte was celebrating her 16th birthday when the incident happened in her home in the municipality of Yumbo, Valle del Cauca Department, Colombia, on 22nd May, 2022.
Karol reportedly slipped on a stair as she was carrying the curtain rod, made of aluminium in her hands and it made contact with a cable.
Karol’s mother, Claudia Ricaurte, who was present during the incident, grabbed her and was also zapped when luckily, there was a break in the current and she managed to move her away.
Claudia told local media: “The curtain rod made an arc with a primary cable that we have in front of our house.
“It was not such a long curtain rod, but what we believe is that it attracted the cable, as if it were a kind of magnet.”
They were both taken to hospital with burns and Karol had to undergo 15 surgeries during a 40-day period.
But still, doctors told the family that Karol had lost response to the tissues in her arms and warned of the risk of lethal infection resulting in amputating both of her arms.
However, Karol continued with sport, modelling and touring in Valle de Cauca as a lecturer.
But finally, Karol received her new arms during the first Latin American Meeting of Leaders for Disability and Family on International Disability Day, 2nd December.
Karol is the first female athlete with bilateral amputation in Colombia with myoelectric hands who received them as a result of the initiative of local Valle del Cauca businessmen, according to local media.
Karol told local media happily: “I am very excited. It’s something we’ve been working on for over a year and seeing it come true today makes me very happy.
“Now I can continue training, competing, and now I can enter university to be a professional and continue helping people.”
She added: “I hope to continue supporting others to have hope.”
Fernando Estupinan, president of Fediscol (Disability and Caregivers Federation of Colombia) said: “We have decided to hold the Meeting as a symbolic gift for the city of Cali where we seek to expand the experiences of leaders from Colombia and Latin America who are already working on solutions for hundreds of people with disabilities and their caregivers that must be replicated.”
