RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Ranah Gob­in-Ja­gram, 31, is on a mis­sion to raise $35,000 for a pros­thet­ic leg, giv­ing her the chance to walk, work, and care for her fam­i­ly once again.

“Hav­ing a pros­thet­ic leg will help me re­gain my in­de­pen­dence, re­gain nor­mal­cy, and be able to do every­day things—like go­ing out­side, play­ing with my son, and cook­ing,” she said. “I miss be­ing able to take care of my fam­i­ly. Peo­ple don’t know how for­tu­nate they are just to be able to do these things.”

Gob­in-Ja­gram said she first no­ticed a dark spot on her foot when she was 23.

“At first, they didn’t know what it was. The skin cracked and turned in­to an ul­cer. They thought it was reg­u­lar, so they gave me an­tibi­otics,” she ex­plained.

Af­ter see­ing mul­ti­ple der­ma­tol­o­gists and try­ing every oint­ment imag­in­able, a spe­cial­ist fi­nal­ly told her it was py­o­der­ma gan­greno­sum—a chron­ic skin dis­or­der that can cause deep, painful sores. Her con­di­tion wors­ened as ul­cers spread be­low her knee.

“I was in so much pain, but I tried to push through. I even stayed on the job as long as I could,” said Gob­in-Ja­gram, who worked as a loans of­fi­cer at a cred­it union.

When the in­fec­tion spread to her bones, doc­tors told her they had no choice but to am­pu­tate.

Gob­in-Ja­gram said the am­pu­ta­tion has left her phys­i­cal­ly re­strict­ed, un­able to cook, clean, or even move eas­i­ly around her home.

“Go­ing to the bath­room is a chal­lenge,” she said. “I have to sit down to bathe. Every­thing I once did ef­fort­less­ly is dif­fi­cult now be­cause I have no leg.”

She said her hus­band, her son and oth­er fam­i­ly mem­bers re­main her biggest sup­port.

“My hus­band has been my rock. We got mar­ried, and a year lat­er, I de­vel­oped this con­di­tion. He’s al­ways been there for me, help­ing dress my wounds, no mat­ter how grue­some they were. He stayed by my side through every­thing,” she said

Gob­in-Ja­gram has ex­pe­ri­enced oth­er health com­pli­ca­tions. In late 2022, she suf­fered a col­lapsed lung and had to un­der­go an emer­gency pro­ce­dure.

A month lat­er, she lost her fa­ther Prakash Gob­in, and two days af­ter his fu­ner­al, both her lungs col­lapsed due to COVID-19.

“I was bedrid­den in Cou­va Hos­pi­tal for weeks, un­able to move. I missed my fa­ther’s prayers and every­thing af­ter his pass­ing,” she said.

Through it all, Gob­in-Ja­gram has re­mained re­silient, re­fus­ing to lose faith.

Some peo­ple were moved by her plight and have start­ed to help.

Mo­hammed Ali, a mem­ber of the South Trinidad Ri­fle As­so­ci­a­tion (STRA), re­cent­ly or­ga­nized a char­i­ty shoot­ing match to help raise funds for the pros­thet­ic leg.

“When I heard about Ranah’s sto­ry, I took it to STRA and told them I want­ed to host this match for her. We had 45 com­peti­tors from all over Trinidad and raised $17,000,” he said. “There are so many in need, and if we’re in a po­si­tion to help, we should.”

Any­one will­ing to help Gob­in-Ja­gram can make do­na­tions to her Sco­tia­bank ac­count num­ber 001207871.