Life is a precious gift and each one of us wants to live it to its fullest. But only a few people and even fewer, who have to go through a mishap, are able to achieve that. Muaaz Zahid, a resident of Lahore, lands on the list of those brave men who faced a major setback in life but came back stronger than ever.
Muaaz is a Lahore based electric bass guitarist who also teaches at LUMS. Last year on 4th July, Muaaz went to Faisalabad for a project meeting. He was standing on an apartment balcony with his friend when his right hand got in contact with a live electric wire coming from a nearby electric pillar. A strong wave of current ran through his arm. Luckily his back touched the railing and the current passed out instead of run through the rest of his body.
I fell down, a friend of mine who is a doctor announced that no one should go near me. One can be revived within 6 hours but we were late.
Due to COVID-19, no hospital in Faisalabad was ready to take his case and no surgeons were available due to the weekend. It took him 12 hours to reach Lahore after visiting 5 different hospitals in Faisalabad. By the time he reached there, all the muscles in his arm had died. Muaaz survived but lost his arm below the elbow.
“I was at a government hospital. Doctors and nurses were trying to induce sensation in my arm through injections and see if it was bleeding or hurting at all. When the process was repeated three to four times, I asked a nurse if the pain was an indication of life and a blessing too.”
When Muaaz lost his arm, he got an artificial hand. It was a bionic hand and different from other artificial organs. Bionics or biologically-inspired engineering is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to design engineering systems and modern technology including prosthetic organs. A bionic organ device or tissue is integrated into a human body which restores the function of the missing organ to a reasonable extent.
I do all of my tasks. I still drive, play guitar. I can even lift things with my bionic hand. None of my works is stopped maybe because I have not let it happen.
After getting his prosthetic hand, Muaaz is back to his normal life. He is still teaching at LUMS University and following his passion for playing guitar with an enthusiasm, he never had before. Not only he is living his life to full, but he is also an inspiration for other people who lose heart at any minor inconvenience in life. The incident has indeed changed a part of his body and he values life more than ever before.
Muaaz has kept the color of his bionic arm black. The reason behind it is that black color is to change people’s perspective about it. According to Muaaz, the way people look at him has also changed. They have realized that he’s not helpless and does not need sympathy. Instead of looking at him with pity in their eyes, they are inclined and ask questions about this arm which due to its black color appears quite aesthetic.
If they want to give their condolences, it is fine. But I cannot make disability a part of me, neither do I want to.
Even today, disabled people in Pakistan are given outdated artificial organs. Things have improved a little recently and robotic organs are being introduced in the country. Awais Qureshi, the founder of Bioniks Technology Pakistan, introduced robotic prosthetic organs in Pakistan in 2016 when a father requested a prosthetic arm for his son. In the process of developing the robotic arm, Awais realized there was no permanent solution to disability in entire South Asia.
This hand is just like wearing a shoe. You just have to pop-in your arm and its sensors synchronize with the rest of your body. It is as easy as this.
A common prosthetic arm costs around 1000 USD whereas a robotic or bionic arm costs around 2000 USD. The weight of a dummy arm is 3KGS where a bionic weighs 800g only, hence bionics provide maximum capability at the lowest cost. Awais suggests that government should promote bionics by providing subsidies.
“Government hospitals provide artificial organs from World War-II era with a subsidy on them. We should make our efforts in a direction where we can instead provide robotic arms with subsidies. In this way, the cost of bionic technology will be reduced and it will be in reach of everyone.”
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