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 Health & Beauty | November 2006 
Boy Wants New Bike for New Feet to Pedal
 Jennifer W. Sanchez - Salt Lake Tribune
| | Jose Gonzalez, 7, from Juarez, Mexico, applies casts to a doll's legs just before he has the casts on his own legs replaced at Shriners hospital in Salt Lake City. (Steve Griffin/The Salt Lake Tribune |
Seven-year-old Jose Gonzalez has never had friends.
He was born with club feet, so he can't run around his neighborhood's dirt roads in Juarez, Mexico. He watches kids playing from his porch or stays inside his home, which has concrete floors. He isn't allowed at school because officials say they are concerned about his safety.
But after several operations and an 11-week stay at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Intermountain in Salt Lake City, Jose is hopeful that with his "new feet" he will be able to go to a special place: school.
"I want to go to school to study," he said. "I want to learn how to read."
Jose is one of dozens of patients who will spend part or all of their holiday season at the hospital as they recover from operations and make toy lists for Santa.
To make sure Shriners patients get gifts this Christmas, Bumper to Bumper Certified Service Centers are collecting new toys from the public at 17 stores statewide.
Jeff Crockett, who's organizing the toy drive, said the auto company chose to help the hospital because it was impressed with its services. He also said the company decided to collect toys instead of coats or food because it's what children want.
"Let the kids be kids," said Crockett, Henderson Wheel Warehouse marketing director. "Let them enjoy their childhood."
The Shriners' Intermountain hospital, opened in 1925, serves Utah, six other Western states and two states in Northern Mexico. The 40-bed hospital provides free medical care for children age 17 and younger with orthopaedic disorders, including bone, muscle and joint diseases, said hospital spokesman Mike Babcock. About 40 percent of the patients are from Utah, he said.
There are no income guidelines, and patients don't have to have insurance to qualify for assistance, Babcock said. The hospital is a private, non-profit organization that doesn't get any state or federal funding and relies solely on contributions.
Olinda Avila, Jose's aunt who cares for him and his four siblings, said she found out about the hospital from a child-welfare services caseworker in Mexico. She said she had almost given up hope for fixing Jose's feet that faced backward. When he walked, it looked as if he was using his ankle to step on. Jose's 12-year-old bother, Gustavo, often carried him places.
About two years ago, Mexican doctors told the family that Jose needed to have his feet amputated, so he could get prosthetic feet to walk correctly. The family searched for other options.
In January, Avila took Jose to a screening clinic, where Shiner hospital workers examined children for medical care eligibility. Four times a year the hospital sets up a clinic at a Juarez fire station to check on former patients and screen some 200 candidates.
Jose was picked. (Club feet is rarely seen in older children in the United States because, with the country's access to medical care, the deformity is often corrected in their first year of life, Babcock said.)
In September, Jose and Avila came to Salt Lake City on their first plane ride. After three operations on each foot, Jose is slowly learning how to walk on his new feet. Avila calls it an incredible miracle and "a great present for Christmas."
"Now that I see it - I still can't believe it," she said, holding back tears. "I'm happy that he's going to live a normal life."
With Christmas around the corner, Jose said he is excited about his feet but misses his brothers and sisters. He's collecting stuffed animals to give to them when he returns home.
The best thing about his new feet? Jose can't wait to ride a bike. He's asking Santa for a red one for Christmas.
"He used to tell his brother, 'They're going to take my feet off and give me new ones - and I'm going to be able to ride that bike,'" Avila said.
jsanchez@sltrib.com |
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