On October 29, Alejandra said goodbye with a loving kiss to her sons Mateo, 7 years old and sick with cancer since he was 3 months old, and Alejandro, 12 years old, who stayed at home with their grandmother. It was her usual routine before going to work at her business, a prenatal store in Turís (Valencia). Nobody could imagine that hours later a DANA would change their lives completely.
«I was working when alarms started ringing, I heard bangs and the water started entering my tent quickly until it covered my hip. I didn’t know what to do. I went out into the street in fear. I could hardly walk because of the height and force of the water and because of the cars that floated and piled up on top of each other as if they were made of paper. I tried to take refuge in a nearby hotel, but they didn’t want to open the doors to me. Finally, I managed to take shelter in an office. I spent the night there, with water up to above my knees, soaked, frozen, but above all tremendously distressed because there were no communications and I didn’t know anything about my children and my mother… whether they would be okay or not.
Alejandra managed to make it to her house the next day on a hellish cross-country walk. «My oldest son started crying when he saw me. I cried too. She told me that she was very scared and wanted to sleep in bed with her grandmother ‘in case it was the last face she saw.’ We all hug each other‘».
In the image, the whole family
This mother acknowledges to ABC that even though her business and her car are destroyed, her family, which is the most important thing, is alive. However, her young son’s recovery has been affected. «With only three months of life they told us that Mateo suffered from a hypothalamic optic brain tumor, the first case in Spain in a baby. His situation was so serious that they asked us to say goodbye to him that night. It was very hard. The next day they were surprised that he was still alive and the neurosurgery team at the Hospital la Fe in Valencia decided to operate on him. 9 hour operation led by Dr. Pablo Miranda, who returned from his vacation. Today Mateo is 7 years old, but suffers many consequences from multiple operations and chemotherapies, such as blindness, developmental and motor delay. He continues to fight his cancer every day. The DANA has paralyzed his therapies and medical consultations».
The little boy went to the hospital every week for his occupational therapy and physio. At the moment can’t receive it because the communication routes are still not fully accessible to get there. «What was usually a 40-minute journey, we tried to do it one day and it took us more than three and a half hours due to the continuous road closures, the work of the UME and other personnel. My son you are missing your recovery routine which is of great importance due to its situation. Since he is not walking, he did many exercises in the hospital with a robot that helps him walk, nor does he carry out sessions with early stimulation sensors, with buttons to learn to communicate better… Also our medical appointments have been canceled at the Hospital de la Fe, and we are waiting to know whether or not they are going to do an analysis that was already scheduled. All this accumulation of circumstances represents a significant setback in my son’s daily struggle. “In addition, he is very nervous and anxious and has changed his sleeping routine.”
For now, “we are clinging to the help that the Aladina Foundation, since we have also done dog therapy with them, specifically with the dog Julieta, who has benefited my son a lot. Furthermore, from DANA they don’t stop calling us to know what we need. They have offered us everything from school supplies to a walker for Mateo. Currently they have made a psychologist available to me who is helping me cope with everything that is happening. I I am now on sick leave due to anxiety and stress. post-traumatic. Since DANA we live at my ex-husband’s house in Alfafar (Valencia) since the area is less affected, but now I have to return home and put everything back together. Since the foundation They have given us a trip to Madrid to get out of this nightmare a little and, in addition, we can be present in a charity Christmas market that will be held on November 30 and December 1whose proceeds will go to families with cancer children affected by DANA. The truth is that we have been very excited to be invited to participate and we are looking forward to the date and for everything to return to normal as soon as possible.
Mateo has motor difficulties and requires a walker to facilitate his mobility.
And, as pointed out Paco Arangopresident and founder of Fundación Aladina, «if cancer is already a human, work, logistical complication… for a family in circumstances like those caused by DANA, in which they have to interrupt treatments and therapies, it’s a real nightmare».
He assures that for these little patients the medical routine “is absolutely necessary. That it is interrupted is like an earthquake in the middle of a great storm. The condition of these children is very fragile and the parents suffer a lot. For this reason we offer them all our support and we are in communication with them and with hospitals to know all their needs. Fortunately, for 20 years we have had the Extraordinary Aid Fund to meet any demand that you communicate to us: transportation to go to hospitals, clothing, school supplies…, whatever is essential. The financial figure that we offer them is what they need because the important thing is that the treatments are not paralyzed. In Valencia we have families who have never needed our support, but after DANA they have been greatly affected and require help and follow-up so that their children are in the best possible conditions.
This is also confirmed by Eva Robles, coordinator of recreational activities and volunteering of this foundation in the Valencian Community, who assures that they have called one by one all the families with childhood oncology patients. «At first we were very scared because there were parents we couldn’t contact due to lack of communications because of the storm.
Those who were able to talk to them confessed that their main problem was that they couldn’t move to centers and hospitals to provide continuity to treatments and therapies. «They had lost their cars and, in addition, many of them had also lost their businesses or are in an ERTE due to the circumstances of their companies, so their economic situation has been greatly damaged. Even so, it is in coordination with the social workers of the health centers and hospitals, the way in which we assign aid so as not to duplicate ourselves and leave other families without the resources they require.
And Eva Robles points out that they also need money to buy again the prostheses that their children lost due to the flood. «Many sick children have had a limb amputated due to the cancer they suffer from and now their daily life is very limited because The water took away his prostheses. In addition, parents are very afraid because these are immunosuppressed children and with the current situation they are at greater risk of catching bacterial infections “if they do not practice adequate hygiene, which is difficult in homes where there is still no running water or there is still mud to remove.”
He explains that he also they demand clothes“because some children were left with only the pajamas they were wearing”, as well as school supplies, books, backpacks, pencils… “The fundamental thing for everyone is that these minors regain their smile and, to do so, they also need have toys because they have also lost them. Many families wonder what the Three Wise Men will be like this year, since they are going through very complicated economic conditions, but they want to see their children smile».
In an attempt to cause smiles and see the children happy again, Eva Robles recognizes that activities are already underway so that they do not run out of toys and, in addition, the foundation is organizing various proposals to create a relaxed environment for families. , far from the harshness of everyday life after DANA. “We have organized from children’s robotics workshops in collaboration with the Polytechnic University of Valencia to trips to the cinema or excursions to enjoy together again and have a little peace in this difficult ordeal that they have had to live through. The most important thing is to see that the children smile again because, if in general it is important in childhood, for these children who fight to overcome their illness, it is much more important.
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