Panama
Walking, talking, hearing … these are skills that a human being normally has and, in general, does not value until he loses them. Eneida Rosa Ovalles is a Panamanian who enjoyed all those qualities until 2007, when she had a fatal accident that cost her her mobility and now she has to move around in a wheelchair.
However, this brave woman has not been intimidated, on the contrary, she has filled herself with strength and courage to continue her life and overcome adversities, and now she is even capable of doing something that she never imagined before the accident: playing sports.
Eneida currently practices table tennis; she has participated in competitions in Guatemala and has received recognition as a Paralympic athlete. In this regard, she told CubaPlus magazine: “I want to encourage everyone who has problems and healthy people, why not, to play sports, because sport is health.”
And she added: “There is no time to cry or regret. We have to move on. Life goes on and you have to feel like it”.
Eneida was treated in her country for a tragic accident that caused fractures in various parts of her body and disfigured her face. She was hospitalized in a medical institution in Panama to undergo surgery and amputate her leg. But she, a fighting and positive woman, decided to leave the hospital and look for hope.
She then went to Cuba in search of another opinion and, after her medical history was evaluated, she decided to go to Havana to be attended by Cuban doctors.
“In Cuba”, she explained, “I underwent surgery on several occasions, I had bone tissue grafts and I received physiotherapy treatments. After three surgical interventions, they managed to rebuild my face.
I had to use external fixators for a long time and due to the blows to the head I suffered several strokes.
However, I did not give up; the doctors reassessed me and told me that there was a 70% chance of recovering with surgeries, the treatment they gave me and, of course, with my willpower”, she said.
For Eneida it has been a blessing to have come to Cuba, because according to her opinion: “Cuban medicine is excellent. The doctors at the Frank País and Camilo Cienfuegos hospitals, and the Cira García clinic are the best, for this I offer all my respect and consideration”.
“After God, without the Cuban doctors, I would not have had a second chance at life. Everything that Cuban doctors do is out of vocation, love and desire. I take my hat off to the Cuban doctors”, she said.