Natasha Tavárez, 37 years old, is in the Manchego public center, a national benchmark, due to a brutal traffic accident that left her quadriplegic
“I have a complete injury. i am tetra. I’m not going to walk again, unfortunately. I can’t do anything alone. But when she can move her arms, carry electric chair and handle handsI will have a new life. I don’t want to be depressed. I do not want to cry. It is what has touched me and I have to take it naturally“. Natasha Tavarez is presented to the Newspaper of Spain, from Prensa Ibérica, leaves him breathless. With an unusual strength, she tells that a brutal traffic accident has taken her to the Hospital for Paraplegics Toledo, a reference center in Spain in spinal cord injury and with a rich research activity. A place that, far from what it might seem, is full of movement.
“Here he comes crying “, is one of the phrases of the hospital. Because whoever comes to Toledo has saved their lives in a country where they are produced every year between 800 and 1,000 spinal cord injuries. And, as Natasha says, from there, everything is to start from scratch from where you are As hard as it is. For this reason, in the center of La Mancha, they like to talk about how, beyond stereotypesFaced with the quietude that is assumed for its patients, the hospital is activity.
Estela’s disease
Estela Merino25 for 26, from Tudela de Duero, Valladolid, walk the corridors of the center and look carefully at the visitors. He wants to talk. It is his second income in Toledo. Sick since 3 years of neurofibromatosis –a genetic disorder that causes the growth of tumors on the nerves that, in general, they are benign-, in 2021, they operated on her to remove them because, some, they already oppressed his marrow. “I was advancing little by little, I was eight months, I was discharged in September 2021, and I continued at home with exercises, with rehabilitation that the doctor sent me. When it already seemed that it was going better … “, she complicated herself.
Follow his story: there came a point where it began to feel worseto lose mobility in his left arm, dragged his feet and, in February 2022, ended up in the ER again. “They saw two other neurofibromas pressing on the spinal cord again. It was like more serious. They didn’t know if I was could become a quadriplegic or hemiplegic“, account. This time, he has been in Toledo since May 1. “I was sick, with a high fever, but I’m recovering,” he says optimistically.
Estela is Nastaha’s friend. In the garden, hospital nerve centerThey go out, get together and laugh. “A lot,” Nastasha will say. In Toledo, with the latest data available, throughout 2022, a total of 266 new patients have been treated, 190 men and 76 women from different autonomous communities. In admissions, traumatic causes continue to be the most frequent (58%) and the rest (42%) correspond to admissions for other non-traumatic reasons. Like Estela’s.
the new reality
There is also a new reality, within income of traumatic originfalls are the most frequent cause (76 patients), against traffic accidents (47) sports accidents (25), assaults (3) and a plane crash. Among the reasons for the falls, it stands out that 12 of them were precipitation with suicide intent. The distribution by age in this cause is also striking, points out the hospital, because the average is 35 years old, and 50% were 25 or younger.
The great thickness of falls (53 patients) they occurred accidentally. The mean age of those admitted was 61 years, the highest mean age of the entire sample. In fact, almost half had over 65 years. These falls were suffered by 44 men, compared to 9 women.
this is simon
When this editor writes the report, purely by chance, she speaks with Simón González. A fatal domestic accident left simon in a wheelchair in 2014. Almost a decade in which whoever was thirteen times world champion kick boxing He has not stopped fighting to get back on his feet. She keeps trying. But the call is to issue a warning: Be very careful with the dives! Near to 6% of spinal cord injuries are produced by reckless plunges, according to data from the Spinal Cord Injured Foundation. especially, between under 30 years and during the months of July and August.
very young boys That they have become quadriplegic because they have broken their necks when they jumped and, repeats the three-time world champion, that’s why we have to talk and a lot to make them aware. Simón says that, from his position as vice president of the Association of Spinal Cord Injuries of Galicia, see very terrible things. The fight of the families many times without sufficient resources, to support those children injured for life. Tremendous things, he insists, always combative. Always positive. “Life should be telling good news,” says the Galician champion.
all with bertha
Wake read the day before the visit of this newspaper the news of Berta Domínguez from Extremadura (28 years old) who, precisely, suffered a spinal cord injury when he jumped into a pool and who, by the way, was also in Toledo. Finished Medicine and this year he has passed the MIR but they prevent him from joining the two positions he has applied for: Family and Preventive. An issue that has raised a huge amount of dust and a great wave of solidarity. Natasha hadn’t heard him. In any case, it seems fatal to him. “That is enormous discrimination”ditch in a small improvised gathering in one of the wide and bright hospital rooms.
“Holding on to the chair and crying is not going to solve anything. I see my possibilities from where I am now,” says Natasha
Natasha returns to the story of her accident. full vacuum. He doesn’t remember anything. It was in 2022, in Zaragoza. He only knows that he was driving because he was going to see the doctor. “I don’t even remember when I took the car”he admits temperately. She is 37 years old and has been living in Spain for 16 years. She is Dominican and mother of a 14-year-old son, who is now with the family, in Borja. His mood goes down for days, but, he repeats decisively, he has that teenager. She has to be fine. His routine goes through going to the gym for rehabilitation or learn to paint with your mouth. Also memory workshops, reading…
“I want to study on-line logistics and transport. I needed psychological support, but I never got completely depressed. Holding on to the chair and crying is not going to solve anything. I see my possibilities from where I am. Also, I realize that there are many barriers, I had never considered it before, when I was walking down the street, “she admits. Next to her, Estela talks about how patients support each other. “Very strong friendships arise”, ensures the Valladolid.
a spinal infarct
Manuel Salgado60 years, count the days to return to Pamplona, which will be at the end of June. She does it from the room where Estela and Natasha are also. He walks with some dexterity with his crutches.. What happened to Manuel? A spinal infarction. A spinal infarct?. “I had never heard of it either. Not even in the hospital (in Pamplona) did they know what it was. Before there were few, now there are many,” explains Manuel, step by step, seeing the surprised face.
There is talk of a serious pathology, rare, affecting the spinal cord and in which it is vital to get the diagnosis right to avoid complications and unnecessary treatments. It was fast, says Manuel. He ate, sat in a chair, felt pain and ended up in the hospital.. He went through a stroke unit and from there, by ambulance, he arrived in Toledo, where he has been for a few months now and is working for recovering the mobility of that right leg that still fails him.
And if you talk about mobility, Diana Herrera, Laura Blanco, Lucía García and Sara Gonzálezare part of the Unit of Biomechanics and Technical Aids that, like the rest of the services of this hospital, is focused on the rehabilitation of patients through the latest advances. Herrera, biomedical engineer, explains that they are a hybrid unit. On the one hand, have clinical and daily activitysuch as carrying out gait studies that serve to have quantitative information on how people walk, how rehabilitation evolves and How to focus treatments.
exoskeletons
In parallel, they do research and that is where They focus on the implementation of technologies, both upper and lower limb. Diana Herrera’s work focuses, above all, on the use of robotic technologies in lower limb. In his group they use exoskeletonswhich are electromechanical systems that combine active assistance to help people move when they can’t do it themselves.
There are different types, describes the engineer, and the ones they use are rehabilitation ones. Your job is to be a extra tool for physiotherapists. The exoskeleton -the patient gets inside the structure and is strapped- is to be able to stand up and walk. The robot helps to make intensive and repetitive movements in a standardized way.
In traditional therapyIt is the physio who moves people’s legs, but by automating it with the exoskeletons, explains Herrera, the professional does not have to make unnecessary efforts. In the center, they have a certified exoskeleton not to be used with crutches. The rest have to carry it with support -crutches- for stability. “It is also important to know to lower expectations about technology, because each technology responds to something different”warns the researcher.
Will I be able to fly again?
What worries Natasha now, beyond technology, is whether, already a quadriplegic, she will be able to travel again to her country, the Dominican Republic, where she used to go every year. “Will I be able to make the plane trip now??. I have never seen such a person in a transatlantic flight“, she admits. In the talk, Estela tells that when she starts dreaming, what gives her joy is thinking about the babies that have come to her family and thinking about the weekends, when her parents get to visit her and bring her dog, Toy.
Each time he manages to walk longer, but he has pain in his left foot that he thinks will be there for life. He has studied administration and finance. She has done interviews. “I can work on that. I also have the title of free time monitor and, maybe, that’s not it. But mine, which is paperwork, yes I can do it“He predicts about his future work with much hope.