Story of Two Survivors

When a twin ISIS bomb blasted next to Lisa Calan, at a political election rally in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, Turkey on 5 June 2015 her life changed forever. The blast killed five people and injured more than 400. She lost her both legs there.” My legs weren’t there when I was taken to hospital,” she remembered later. The ambulance that transported her to the hospital had no emergency equipment.
“It was an empty ambulance,” she said. “People used their belts to stop the bleeding.” “I was told at the hospital that I had lost eight litres of blood.”Her legs are now buried next to her father’s grave.
“So I guess I can say I am already partly in the grave,” the 29-year-old film professional told. She is also the second member of her family to lose their legs. After a severe frost, her brother lost his legs too. “My mum cries for her two children with no legs now,” she says. Calan, who is a film director and scriptwriter, has been in constant treatment since the blast. She had nine operations in Turkey and Germany with no success. “After every operation, my legs got shorter,” she told The Australian Kurdish community crowdfunded $500,000 to treat her in Australia.”It was my last chance to walk again” Calan said. She had her last operation at Macquarie University in Sydney and now, she walks again, with her brand new robotic legs. Her surgeon, Iraqi-born Munjed Al Muderis performed her operation at no cost. Dr Muderis operated on her legs for seven hours and attached new titanium prosthetic legs.
Dr Muderis his own remarkable story. Munjed Al Muderis fled Iraq at the age of 27, as a young doctor who refused the orders of Saddam Hussein to mutilate army deserters’ ears. He came to Australia by boat in 1990 and spent 10 months at the Curtin Detention Centre. Now he is one of the most successful orthopedic surgeons at the forefront of Australian orthopaedics. He regularly returns to Iraq to help victims of terrorist attacks and worked in Iraq to help get war veterans back up and walking again. Dr Muderis is now one of three surgeons worldwide pioneering a revolutionary technology known as Osseo integration – a cutting edge technology where surgical implants are directly integrated into the bone. Speaking about Lisa’s case, Dr Muderis said “I saw a video of her dancing the other day. That brings happiness to me,” he told.
Lisa is cheerful now. She returned to Turkey with her new legs in her baggage. As the wounds from her operation heal, she will be able to attach her new legs more regularly.” Soon I will wear my legs all day and walk everywhere,” she said.