Vinod served with the 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles and was seriously injured on operations in Afghanistan in 2010.
Reflecting on the day of the incident, he recalls:
“It was my second tour of Afghanistan. I was clearing a path for my patrol and we had to cross a canal. Just before I stepped in the water there was a huge bang. There was dust everywhere, and then my legs felt as if they were burning; as if someone was wringing them out like wet clothes.”
He immediately knew the severity of his injuries.
“I could see that both my legs were smashed; my right leg was missing and although my left leg was still there, it was so smashed that I knew it would have to come off. I was conscious throughout the evacuation. My colleagues put tourniquets on me, gave me morphine and tried to stop the bleeding.”
After multiple surgeries, Vinod began his long road to recovery.
“After my amputations my life was upside down. I remember lying in the hospital bed in Selly Oak and no-one had told me how high up my amputations were. I put my hand under the blanket, touched my legs and realised they were above the knee. I just cried. But I never showed anyone that. As a soldier, I just tried to be tough; I didn’t want to show any weakness.”
Despite his injuries, Vinod says he feels fortunate.
“Honestly, I feel lucky because I lost so many friends who I served with in Afghanistan. I survived and now have so many opportunities in life, but they can’t come back. We supported each other in a warzone, and that is a very, very tough place to be, but it is also the place where we became very close to each other.”
Now a father of two daughters, aged 10 and 14, Vinod enjoys an active family life and is training for a 5km charity run, hoping to raise funds for the organisation that has supported him for over a decade.
