‘Everything without light’: Man loses his legs, his sight, but not his hope
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - After ten days of unconscious darkness, Shaquil Aribuk awoke from a coma — to more darkness.
“I remember asking the medical staff, how can they work in the dark?” Aribuk said. “And that’s where they confirmed, I am completely blind.”
A rare flesh-eating bacterial infection known as necrotizing fasciitis had spread through Aribuk’s body, including his legs, which had to be amputated, and his optic nerves, rendering him blind.
Aribuk was born and raised in the Republic of Palau, and said he moved to the U.S. for a better education. Ultimately, he landed in Alaska with his biological mother. After some time, Aribuk moved to California, but life took a turn for the worse.
“That’s where I got introduced to the wrong crowd and got affiliated with the wrong crowd and just — basically raised myself in the streets,” Aribuk said.
That’s when Aribuk became infected, and he lost not only his sight and legs, but his grandmother shortly after. He returned to his family in Alaska, but said loss led him to old habits.
”I gave up everything," Aribuk said. “Because upon losing my legs, losing my vision, and losing my grandma, it just left me hopeless. So, guess what? I turned back to alcohol, drugs, and partying to just to numb the pain.”
After another serious health scare and trip to the emergency room, Aribuk said he began to rethink his life.
”That’s where I started praying and asked God — what is his purpose? Cause it was basically the second time he saved my life." Aribuk said. “And from there, that’s where I kind of asked myself, ‘Shaq, what are you going to do after you get this start?‘”
With a new lease on life but still facing a challenging adjustment, Aribuk reached out to the Alaska Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
”I’m a very independent person; I don’t always rely on people,“ Aribuk said. ”But now I realize, like, yeah, you’re not the same no more, Shaq; you have to ask for help.”
Upon visiting the center, Aribuk said he was greeted and led around by their program director, Nate Kile, who is blind himself.
On that first day, Aribuk said Kile used a wheelchair to lead him around and better understand what navigating was like for him. From there, Aribuk was invigorated.
“He transferred his energy to me because I said ‘If the program director Nate can do it, I can do it too,‘” Aribuk said.
As Aribuk attended the center and took classes, he learned new skills, how to adjust, and was even motivated by others to return to playing piano.
Music now holds even deeper meaning, Aribuk said, helping him picture special moments in his life.
“For me, being blind, I can just picture like up on a big tree, it’s hanging on the side of — of the edge of the dock and we’ll just jump from the top of the tree,” Aribuk said. “We’ll jump into the water, and I remember these songs they were playing and like ‘ohh, that reminds me of this day.‘”
Aribuk hopes to give back by someday teaching others facing similar situations how to adjust to life without sight. Not only that, he hopes to inspire others in and outside the blind community.
His nickname, “S.H.A.Q.” stands for “sharing hope aspiring qualities.”
Shaq has even taken up activities like skiing and rockclimbing with the help of the center and groups like Access Alaska.
“I want to inspire and motivate you or anyone just to show people like hey, once you put your mind into something you want to do in life, you can do it,” Aribuk said. “Sky is the limit, it’s just you have to work for it.”
In the end, Aribuk wants others to know that those who are blind are not incapable, just “in the dark.”
“We still can do it,“ Aribuk said. ”It’s just — the blind community, we do everything in the dark, but most people, they don’t realize all the hard work we go through just to regain the strength of the brain to do things in the dark, or just doing everything without the light."
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