N.Y. Embraces Kosovo Girl
By JOANNE WASSERMAN
Daily News Staff Writer
When her family returned to a small village in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo last spring after the war, teenager Ibadete Thaqi picked up a bucket of water to help her mother clean the family's ravaged home.
The simple act changed the 14-year-old girl's life forever. Inside the pail was a land mine that exploded and blew Ibadete's legs off at the knees.
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| Kosovo teen Ibadete Thaqi |
Today, thanks to the compassion and caring of many, many New Yorkers, Ibadete will receive free medical care at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan that will result in her receiving artificial legs.
Wearing heart-shaped barrettes in her long, brown hair, Ibadete arrived last night with her mother, Squri, after an around-the-world flight from their homeland in the Balkans.
"I feel a bit tired, but when I see where I am, I'm not tired," Ibadete said through an interpreter at LaGuardia Airport.
The injured girl said she was looking forward to seeing the Statue of Liberty — and to one day regaining the use of her legs, "to be able to walk again, with my friends in the future."
Squri Thaqi said she had only the simplest of wishes for her daughter. "To see her walking, to see her in school," the mom said last night.
Ibadete's tragedy began shortly after her family returned home to the village of Llapushnik after being in exile in Albania for 11 weeks.
"I just picked the bucket up to do some cleaning," Ibadete told Dave Marash of the ABC News program "Nightline" through a translator in an interview that aired June 22. "When I reached the stairs, it exploded."
The teenager went on to say that all she wanted was "a normal life, to go back to school like everybody else. I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to be a doctor, but how can I be a doctor now? I'm crippled."
The TV interview was conducted at Pristina Hospital just days after Ibadete sustained the injury, but Marash said the girl's "striking personality" came through for all to see.
"The whole thing was very fresh," Marash said. "While she was very devastated and sad, she had a real dignity and composure about her that came right through the camera.
"Several people e-mailed or wrote in to say they wanted to help this girl."
City Controller Alan Hevesi's office enlisted the help of the New York Association for New Americans, which will manage Ibadete's case and provide housing and intrepreters.
The generosity doesn't stop there: The head of the Hospital for Special Surgery's orthopedic trauma service, Dr. David Helfet, will personally care for the girl.
Ibadete and her mother are expected to stay in the city for about four months while the teen receives physical therapy twice a day, five days a week at the hospital.
Anyone wishing to help cover expenses such as food, clothing and other needs for Ibadete and her mother can send donations to: The Ibadete Thaqi Fund, New York Association for New Americans, 17 Battery Place, 8 North, New York, N.Y. 10004-1102, or call (212) 898-4101.
Original Publication Date: 01/07/2000
From: The New York Daily News