Young archer’s wait for doctor’s all-clear gets longer amid pandemic

Shivangini Gohain’s mother and father are caught in an odd state of affairs. While their 12-year-old daughter, a promising archer from Dibrugarh in Assam, is keen to return to coaching after a brush with a life-threatening damage throughout coaching, the mother and father are apprehensive the freak damage suffered in January may get aggravated.

An arrow pierced Gohain’s proper shoulder on the Sports Authority of India’s coaching centre within the Chabua district of Dibrugarh and narrowly missed the spinal twine. She was airlifted to Delhi and handled on the AIIMS Trauma Centre.

But because of the nationwide lockdown enforced in March, the household couldn’t convey her to Delhi for follow-up examination. “We had booked tickets for April 6 but the flight got cancelled. The doctor treating her had prescribed a three-month course. He has now advised medicines for another three months,” says Gohain’s father Birinchi. “We are happy that she is eating well and sometimes goes for a walk and jogs too, but we don’t want to send her for training until the doctor gives the all-clear… she still has stiffness around the shoulder.”

Birinchi says he can’t consider coming to Delhi within the close to future as “the situation isn’t good”. “The doctor has asked us not to take that risk.”

The mother and father are in common contact with the physician in Delhi, calling or texting him to share Gohain’s progress, “as local doctors are not able to give any advice”.

Gohain’s coach at SAI centre, Athary Shimray Mercy, says, “Since there is no competition right now, Shivangini can take it easy. She stays close to the training centre and it must be difficult for the parents to tell her that she cannot go to ground.”

Gohain, who obtained enrolled on the SAI centre in December 2018, is in Class 5 and presently attending on-line periods. “We are thankful to God that she is able to doing something,” says her father.