A Lecture of Faith.
Patricia Alejandra Campos is a 16-year-old girl from Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico. Born with serious physical limitations, she now is a freshman in high school. She spends most of the time in her wheelchair doing her daily routine. Patricia Alejandra was born with a developmental disability called Myelomeningocele which is a defect in the development of the spinal cord resulting in paralysis and is often associated with Hydrocephalus, the abnormal fluid retention in the brain.
Patricia Alejandra’s family wanted to find some solutions to her limitations when she was growing up but unfortunately no doctors wanted to take her case. Her parents took her to several hospitals, clinics and other centers asking for help because it was thought her case was terminal. She will never move again, said many doctors to Patricia Alejandra’s mother. But, her mother did not give up and continued looking for help hoping that someone would give them an opportunity to help Patricia Alejandra.
For many years Patricia Alejandra’s mother faced a daily battle with doctors and hospitals trying to find services for her daughter often unsuccessfully. In 2001, she registered her daughter in a special center for children with disabilities. From Tuxtla where Patricia Alejandra was born, she and her mother rode an old bus for approximately 600 kilometers every time she needed to go for a special treatment in the adjoining state of Oaxaca, Mexico.
After nine surgeries, Patricia Alejandra still keeps her optimism like the dreams of many other young girls. She does not feel bad anymore when people look at her or make comments about her disabilities. The dream Patricia Alejandra holds most dear is that someday she will be able to walk.
Now, Patricia Alejandra’s mother has managed to rent a little room close to Oaxaca to avoid the difficult ride from her home in Tuxtla hoping to find treatment soon. As Patricia Alejandra matures she faces a daily risk of heart attack because of her disabilities.
Life is difficult for this family who face a daily struggle of survival in a little town in Mexico while keeping faith and hope that Patricia Alejandra will be able to walk.