Madani, 32, smiles as his eyes gleam. Al-Madani is a paraplegic. The Oxford Dictionary defines a paraplegic as someone whose lower part of the body is paralyzed, including both legs caused by injury to the spinal cord. Al-Madani was injured in his youth after falling off a ladder while fixing electricity wiring at his home. He landed on a vase, which damaged his spine and the resulting pain caused him to lose consciousness. “This is my fate and no objection to what has happened to me,” Al-Madani said. “I was still awake before the Red Crescent people came and took me to the hospital,” Al-Madani recalled. “I do not know if they handled me properly or not. At first he was taken to Al-Noor Hospital in Makkah, and then he was transferred to King Fahd General Hospital in Jeddah, where he underwent surgery to fix his fractured vertebrae. Before any doctors told him of his condition Al-Madani said he already knew. “I knew I was a paraplegic because when they operated on me, especially my spinal cord, I couldn't feel my legs.” “With support and encouragement from my family and friends and my belief in Allah, I was able to overcome my feelings of anxiety and sadness,” he said. After his injury Al-Madani went on to complete a degree at a college of communication in Jeddah. A Saudi national, he worked at the Handicapped Children's Society in Makkah as a telephone operator for six months, but because of the number of hospital appointments both in Taif, Jeddah and Makkah he was forced to leave his job. Dr. Fathi Othman, a plastic surgeon at a hospital in Taif, is treating Al-Madani for bed sores and said he has never seen a patient in Al-Madani's condition in such high spirits. “This is the first time I've seen a patient with such a complicated health condition and yet he is smiling and doesn't complain. Despite being wheelchair bound and being unable to walk. I've never seen a patient like him,” Othman said. Al-Madani likes sport, especially football. “I am not fond of any particular club,” he said. “I like the nice games, even though they are international. I support the Saudi National Football team. My favorite player is Malik Muaath Al-Ahli and Saudi national team,” Mohammad Qaisar, a psychiatric consultant at a hospital in Taif, said that because Al-Madani was cared for by his family and friends and was properly treated by his physicians he was able to recover psychologically from his injury, knowing that people cared for him. “He has accepted his fate as God's will and he cannot do anything to change that fact.” __
