A world tour on bicycle doomed in God’s own country
The Hindu
Luis Escudero Soler and his partner Maria Juan Pastor were in Kerala as part of their four-year tour that began in Alicante, Valencia, in Spain on April 3 last year when they met with an accident on December 21. Maria underwent multiple surgeries.
A Spanish couple on a world tour on bicycle has been stranded in Kerala after they met with a road accident at Chavakkad on December 21. The injury one of them suffered is so severe that she cannot even make a slight movement out of her hospital bed.
Luis Escudero Soler and his partner Maria Juan Pastor had never imagined that their four-year tour plan would be doomed in god’s own country when they set out to pedal the planet from Alicante, Valencia, in Spain on April 3 last year.
Their worst fears about traffic in India came true four days before Christmas when a speeding car overtaking another hit their bike and sent Ms. Pastor flying. She broke her pelvis and right femur as she took the impact of the collision. What followed was nightmarish for the couple as the worst trauma of their life unfolded. Mr. Soler collapsed three times seeing a screaming Maria writhing in pain.
The hapless couple luckily got the help of two good samaritans when former deputy registrar of Calicut University M.K. Pramod and his friend Babu Appak arranged support. “I didn’t know what to do. Maria was so badly injured and I was traumatised,” Mr. Soler told The Hindu.
Ms. Pastor underwent multiple surgeries with a dozen odd staples put on her shattered femur. The pelvic fracture is so critical that she cannot afford to move a bit. Chances of taking her home in an air hospital are ruled out because the slightest movement of the pelvis can considerably delay the cure.
The couple has nearly overcome the trauma. Their families have offered to fly down to help them. “But as long as Maria is confined to the hospital ICU bed, our family too cannot do anything here,” Mr. Soler said. Hospital officials said that Maria would have to be immobile for a few more weeks.
Although Mr. Soler is proficient in English, Ms. Pastor is not. But she has won the heart of the medical team that attends to her. And she has started to speak a bit of Malayalam.
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