His very name, José Milagro, attests to the rough start to life experienced by the eight-year old Chapala boy who has gained hope for a brighter future following the orthopedic surgery he underwent last week at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Mexico City.
The youngster was born prematurely in the sixth month of gestation and baptized with the second name meaning “miracle” for surviving the first of many obstacles that would come ahead. He was afflicted with a birth defect, eventually diagnosed as spastic diplegia cerebral palsy that severely harmed normal physical development. He has never stood or walked on his own.
Shortly after birth, José Milagro was abandoned by his mother, left in the loving care of his great- grandmother Anita Macias Negrete, the only close relative capable of taking the infant under her wing. She provided him with a humble home in a lean-to structure located in an impoverished Chapala neighborhood.
Their plight was discovered four years ago by Héctor España Ramos, Ajijic restaurateur and the Chapala government’s current expatriate liaison. He roped in close friend and mentor Harry Bublin, Graham and Sheila Paull, David Eccles and other members of the Lake Chapala Shrine Club to help arrange treatment for José Milagro’s disability. Dr. Oscar Ibarra Unzueta, director of Chapala’s Municipal Clinic, also joined the mission to get the boy admitted to the Shriners Hospital.
A first attempt to program surgery faltered when the great-grandmother was unable to show the hospital documents proving legal custody of the child. España tirelessly pursued the matter, turning to government agencies, lawyers and notaries until finally squaring away the great-grandmother’s definitive guardianship. Chapala Mayor Moisés Anaya supported the effort to the end, personally handing over the official documents to Macias at a modest celebration held April 28.
In the meantime, a team of generous expat volunteers led by Steve Cross and Catherine Claire Blythe pitched in to remodel and furnish Macias’s home as a safe harbor for José Milagro.
Just as everything was lining up to schedule the boy’s surgery, the Covid-19 pandemic put new wrinkles in plans that were sorted out one by one. With a notarized power-of-attorney in hand, España’s office assistant Iván Martínez was lined up to sub for Macias as the boy’s travel companion and temporary guardian. On Sunday, July 19, the pair boarded a flight to the nation’s capital. After being tested for Covid-19, they were allowed to check into the hospital. Tuesday morning, the boy’s trusted sponsor España managed to quell his pre-surgical jitters via a video call just before José Milgaro was wheeled into the operating theater for a successful tendon extension procedure performed on both legs.
As José Milagro was ready to be released the next day, Martínez learned that, fitted with fiberglass casts, the boy could not be accommodated on a return flight. Local Shriners saved the day, picking up the tab to ferry him home in a private ambulance. While they were en route, España and his family scrambled to prepare adequate quarters for the patient and his caregivers to stay during the initial two-week recovery period.
Once the casts are removed, the Shriners will set up a physical therapy program in Guadalajara so that the miracle child will finally have a fighting chance to gain the ability to stand on his own two legs. Stay tuned for the next chapter in this heart-warming saga.