An amputee has been returning to hospital every week for two years to encourage patients about to undergo an amputation that life can return to normal after surgery.

Adam Bugeja, 55, had his left leg amputated three years ago due to a persistent infection that was spreading. He now has a prosthetic leg and lives a normal life.

In his free time, Adam shoots videos of himself on long hikes, climbing up and down stairs and walking on rough terrain to help patients – who are usually terrified of the surgery – feel more hopeful.

“Most of them are reluctant to go under the knife because they fear that their life will be over after they lose a limb,” he told Times of Malta.

“But if they don’t get the amputation, they risk allowing the infection to spread. And that could kill them. So, every week I dedicate some of my time to encourage them to go for it, because like me, they can truly regain normalcy.”

Adam has been living with diabetes for many years and his own painful journey started in 2019 when he had just landed in Lourdes for a holiday and fell ill.

An infected wound on his toe kept getting worse and he was flown back to Malta where he underwent a number of operations and spent months in hospital.

Doctors had initially hoped his foot would heal after amputating one toe, but this was not the case. Other toes had to be amputated but his body was also rejecting skin grafts, and when another amputation of part of his foot was unsuccessful doctors decided to amputate his leg below the knee.

Being an enthusiastic hiker, Adam felt that was the end of his life.

“The thought of losing my leg was horrible. I felt like my life as I knew it was over and I would never be able to live and walk normally again,” he recalled. “And at first I didn’t want to do it.”

But when he met a man who lived with two prosthetic legs and was living relatively normally, he plucked up the courage to go under the knife one more time.

“If this man can live normally with two amputated legs, I can do it with just one, if I work hard enough. That’s what I thought to myself,” he said.

A screengrab from a video showing Adam’s prosthetic leg as he walks on rocky terrain.

‘I had to learn how to walk again’

After surgery Adam got a prosthetic leg and underwent a strict therapy and training regime.

“I literally had to learn how to walk again,” he said.

With great determination to regain normalcy in his life, he upped his training regime and would walk even longer distances than doctors suggested. He also took his training to uneven surfaces, challenging himself to walk on rocky terrain, hoping to return to his hiking days.

Within months, Adam was walking normally with his new prosthetic leg. He would go to Gozo often and walk all the way from Xewkija to the Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary, and on one occasion he completed a 16-kilometre hike from Chadwick Lakes to Baħrija, Balzan, Lija, Mosta and back to Chadwick Lakes.

“I was in such disbelief at the progress I had made that I began to film myself with my phone on all sorts of long walks,” he said.

And that is when he got the idea of giving hope to other patients.

“If only before my amputation I had someone to show me that life could truly get back to normal after the surgery, I would have faced the challenge with greater serenity,” he said.

“Then one day I went back to the hospital ward to visit the nurses who had become like a family to me. And the head nurse asked me to speak to a patient who needed to undergo a leg amputation but was afraid to do it.

“I spoke to him and showed him the videos of myself walking, and I could see a spark of hope in his eyes. And that was it. He decided to do the surgery. He’s back to his normal life now.”

The thought of losing my leg was horrible. I felt like my life as I knew it was over- Adam Bugeja

To this day, Adam returns to that Mater Dei ward at least once a week to visit the nurses and doctors who saved his life and to show patients videos of his frequent hikes.

“‘Look at me walking well,’ I tell them. ‘If I could do it, so can you,’” he said.

“Going to hospital has become one of the happiest outings of my week.”

Adam also does not like to sit around when he visits Mater Dei and has taken it upon himself to help the hospital’s gardeners in the upkeep of a small garden adjacent to the ward.

“We want the garden to look welcoming and beautiful because it is the place where most children meet their relatives who are patients in the hospital’s surrounding wards,” he said.

“Often children are not allowed inside the ward and the garden is the perfect place for family reunions before and after surgery. It is also a better place for staff to spend their free time.”

Adam said he would not be able to do any of what he does were it not for the doctors, nurses carers and therapists at Mater Dei and St Luke’s hospitals who saved his life, helped him regain independence and allow him to visit patients regularly.

Adam helps to take care of a Mater Dei garden that is adjacent to the hospital ward.