wooden peg

I remember a man in my 'barrio' who died of having a lump on his foot.

I was a kid when I got to know this man who enjoyed life in his earlier days. His house was next to my family's and I had some close encounters with this guy. But only one incident shattered his dreams which resulted into his tragic ending.

He went to a field to bathe his buffalo. As he got down from the buffalo from washing its back, he stepped into a small wooden peg. At that moment, it hurt a bit and he thought it was not really something serious. After a week, his sole got hurt again but still he ignored the pain. Months after months, his pains had grown stronger and stronger. He took pain killers to alleviate the pains. But after 2 years of getting some attacks of pain from his foot, he got the shock of his life.

Only after a couple of years he went to see a doctor. Only then he knew that he had a bone cancer. The doctor advised him to have his foot cut and it was removed immediately after. Complications on his foot already spread on to his leg so the pain went up reaching its back which led to the loss of his entire leg. But the cancer cell was so stubborn that it hit his entire body. He was given another two years of medication but the disease was not good to him leading  to his early demise. As he was on his deathbed, he exclaimed this to his mother, "Neglect killed me. It is because of neglect why I turned out like this. I am sorry."