The story of how destructive medical incompetence is
My name is Nina, I live in Russia, I'm 18 years old, and I've been moving exclusively in a wheelchair for 7 years. When I was 2 years old, strange red spots appeared on my leg. They didn't cause me any discomfort, but they occupied the entire surface of my leg - from hip to heel. For 8 years, my parents took me to different doctors to understand what it was, is it dangerous? I've been to oncologists, hematologists, and many other doctors. Various minor diagnoses were made, but the last one was: "a cosmetic defect, it does not harm health in any way." A few weeks after that, my legs began to go numb, I constantly stumbled and fell, experienced terrible pain in the chest area, could not breathe calmly and sleep while lying down. Only in a sitting position could I get some sleep. As it turned out a month later and a bunch of wrong diagnoses, I had a hemangioma - a vascular tumor. During these 8 years of erroneous diagnoses, she grew to such a size that she crushed the thoracic vertebra, and also severely compressed the spinal cord, resulting in a cerebrospinal stroke. I stopped feeling my body below my chest. My story is about the negligence of some doctors, and about the heroism and professionalism of others - those who operated on me. At the moment, a metal structure consisting of 8 bolts and a titanium plate is installed in my spine, which replaces the destroyed vertebra. Sensitivity returned to me completely, small movements also returned, but I still move in a wheelchair.
Inaccessible environment in Russia
In my country, unfortunately, there are few comfortable conditions for a person with disabilities. This moment is the main difficulty in my life. Not every residential building has an elevator, and in front of the entrance to the staircase, there is a staircase without any ramp. It is very rare in public institutions to find a toilet for people with disabilities, we are not allowed to travel in the metro without metro employees (and sometimes you have to wait for them for hours, even if you warn in advance), sometimes taxi drivers refuse to take a person in a wheelchair without explaining the reasons. And there are many other problems. There is also some kind of discrimination in our society because people know little about people with disabilities and think only about stereotypes. That is, in their opinion, if you are in a wheelchair, then you are incapacitated. Not all people think so, but still, there are many of them. I do my best to fight these stereotypes and never despair, but on the contrary, I strive to show our society that people with disabilities are no different from them! And I believe that one day people with disabilities in Russia will live carefree.
It is so important to raise awareness and know that we can do anything!
