KUALA LUMPUR: Ras Adiba will go “under the knife”, to replace the titanium on her cervical disc later this year.
“This is a necessary surgery for ‘wear-and-tear’ of my bones,” she said at the buka puasa event of her non-governmental organisation OKU Sentral at Warung Mama Restaurant, Jalan Robertson here yesterday.
Come Monday, the veteran newscaster and handicapped people's activist will also be wheeled into the operation theatre.
“It’s to mend the torn ligament of my right shoulder. I got hurt doing some strenuous physical activity with my arms recently, and this’ll be the first time I’m going under the knife since 2002,” she said.
Ras Adiba, 51, who will have her operation at Prince Court Medical Centre here, said: “I’ll be in hospital for a few days and once I’m out, I’ll be spending a low-key Raya with my siblings and parents here and in Kuala Pilah, Negri Sembilan.”
Ras Adiba has been wheelchair-bound since 2002. Her paralysis began with a car accident in 1995 in which she suffered a back injury.
Six years later, she was assaulted by a group of men outside her house and a year later, she fell down at home and ended up on a wheelchair.
Since then. she has undergone physiotherapy, and participated in shooting events including the Para Asean Games 2015 in Singapore.
Describing the upcoming Raya celebration as a time for recuperation and reflection for her, she said: “Recuperation because of surgery, and reflection because of three dear friends I lost over the last year,” she said, adding that they were her former TV3 newscaster colleagues Datuk Mahadzir Lokman and Ishak Nengah, and actress Wafa Abdul Kadir.
Wafa died of cancer at 52 on March 16, while Mahadzir died at 61 on Aug 3 last year. Ishak, the father of hip-hop singer Joe Flizzow, died at 65 of cancer three days after Mahadzir.
“I’ll always miss them, and over the month of Syawal I’m likely to pay their families a visit. Raya will never be the same without Wafa, Dale (Mahadzir) and Ishak, who were like siblings to me.”