“I haven’t been able to speak for a long time, and now no one can stop me,” he admits. Hernán Cortés Soria right after starting our conversation. And this man from Madrid will not have conquered distant lands like the person who bore his name 500 years ago, but he has achieved a no less important feat: recovering – almost completely – from a syndrome of Guillain-Barré very serious who came into his life abruptly two years ago, “I got up like any other Sunday in January and went to walk the dog, to have coffee with our dog friends, with whom we met every Sunday. After eating I felt bad, I went to the emergency room, and at night I was in an induced coma. Thanks to the fact that there was an internist who immediately realized what it was, I am here today, she saved my life,” he remembers.
He Guillain-Barré syndrome It is an uncommon, but not rare, disease that has been known since 1907, but still remains very unknown to most people. In fact, until it happened to him, Hernán had never heard of it, which is why it is not usually diagnosed very well. The syndrome can be mild, moderate, severe or very serious, and Hernán got the very serious one, “the disease occurs because a virus or other pathogen with which we become infected and that has a structure similar to the myelin of the nerves confuses the immune system, and it attacks the myelin sheath that protects the nerves instead of the virus and brain orders can no longer be transmitted well. And he does it with such virulence that produces paralysis which begins with the feet and hands and goes towards the center of the body, which causes all your organs and muscles to stopyour head tilts, you can’t speak… That’s why it’s often confused with a stroke or something like that. “The first thing they put me on was a respirator.”
After putting him on a respirator, they induced a coma and he woke up 15 days later in what seemed to be a horrible nightmare, “I found myself in what they call the captivity syndromewhich is a perfectly conscious brain in a mummified body, which did not respond and from which I could not even open my eyes, or even breathe… but I heard, felt and was perfectly aware of everything that was happening around me. It’s absolutely terrifying. And the first thing they tell me is that, If I survive, it will take three to five years to recover.…It’s a huge blow. The good thing is that, if you manage to live, you recover, you have a good prognosis, although there may be consequences.” And that’s what he clung to.
After eating, I felt bad, I went to the emergency room, and at night I was in an induced coma
A story that was repeated over and over again
“The most particular thing about this disease is the transition you go through from when it happens suddenly until you achieve normality, and the truth is that “This transit is horrible because it requires exceptional physical and psychological effort.”assures Cortés. A transition that he decided to begin by telling himself the same story over and over again, “I am not a writer, I had never written a book, I am a biologist, but when I woke up from a coma I felt the need to create a story. When I managed to open a Mind you, I could only look at the ceiling, so I decided that, in order not to think all the time about what was happening to me, I had to keep my mind busy, so I started imagining that I was doing sports, that I was taking the dog out… and I thought about write a mental account of what had happened to mewith anecdotes, thoughts… Since I couldn’t physically write it, tell it to anyone or record it, I told it to myself mentally, over and over again,” he remembers.
And so a few months passed, until they discharged him and sent him to the hospital. Toledo paraplegic hospital“it is something that I am infinitely grateful for, because I was not a spinal cord injury, but since they are experts in respiratory rehabilitation, which was what I had the worst, they took me there, and I was there until almost the end of the year. There I started rehabilitation and it was where I started to eat, to talk, I took my first steps… And there I continued to feed the story, without fleeing from the drama, but in the form of anecdotes.”
Seven months later, he was discharged and went home “as I still couldn’t use my hands, my son put the microphone on the computer and I dictated, but since I was pronouncing very badly, it was a fight between the computer and me,” he remembers, laughing.
Almost a year after it all started, at Christmas, to thank his family and friends for everything they had done for him that year, he He printed the story and gave it to her as a gift.“the success was such that they convinced me to edit it better and sell it, because they thought it could help many people face situations like the one I was going through. And I decided to do it, but the benefits go to the research that of the disease make the Toledo hospital”. And thus was born ‘Don’t let a Guillain-Barré catch you’, a book with which he has already raised 3,000 eurosbut in reality it is the germ of something much bigger that he has in his head.
It’s funny how something you’ve been longing for for months, which is to return home, can turn into a nightmare, because you realize that your house is the same, but you’re not.
Part 2: ‘The return home’
‘Don’t let a Guillain-Barré catch you’ It is the story of the first year after the illness, but Hernán already has the sequel in mind, which is a book in which he will tell what happened later, after returning home, a stage, that of the last year, that has been harder than he expected, “it’s funny how something you’ve been longing for for months, which is to return home, can turn into a nightmare, because you realize that your house is the same, but you’re not. You’re in a wheelchair, You can’t fit through the doors, there is a step that you can’t go up… and it’s another blow.”
When he got home he realized how dependent he was, that the things that were done to him before in the hospital had to be done by his family, “the place where you have been living all your life becomes a hostile place. I had to adapt the entire house and find my way in terms of doctors, rehabilitation… you have to look the way to move forward at home with your loved ones, surviving, is a process of survival, because that’s what it’s all about, surviving and getting up, and it’s not always easy, that’s why many people give up, they stay on the path… If my example helps you people choose to survive, not to faint, welcome.”
![photographer: Sergio García Carrasco[[[PREVISIONES 20M]]]topic: II DCA Olympics on the occasion of Acquired Brain Injury Day (October 26).](https://imagenes.20minutos.es/uploads/imagenes/2024/10/25/fotografo-sergio-garcia-carrasco-previsiones-20m-tema-ii-dca-olimpiadas-con-motivo-del-dia-del-dano-cerebral-adquirido-26-octubre-16.jpeg)
Hernán, despite everything that has happened to me, considers himself lucky, lucky to have had the strength to move forward and take rehabilitation as a job that does not miss a day, to have the means to being able to pay for rehabilitation and for living in a city where you have access to the neurorehabilitation you need“I know that many people are not this lucky, that’s why I appreciate it and I don’t give up in my efforts to continue working to improve. I have at least a year of work ahead of me, but I’m close to being who I was, which is my goal. Right now, I use a cane and I can’t get up on my own if I fall, and I have fallen many times, but I continue because I know that one day I will succeed, just as I have returned to driving after two years… and starting from scratch. , I have had to learn everything, from eating to talking, walking, going to the bathroom…”
A 2025 full of objectives
Hernán Cortés, because of his work, has been developing action and management plans all his life, and this is how he took his recovery, “in my ‘action plan’ I was marking small milestones that I had to achieve in a time frame. As I achieved milestones, I set more complex ones. The first year was the year of recovery from the disease, 2024 has been the year of rehabilitation, and I want the year 2025 to be the year in which I fully recover, the year of normality. I want for next Christmas to be as similar as possible to the Hernán I was before I got sick. “I’m becoming more independent, and that’s good for me, but also for those around me, so they don’t have to be so aware of me.”
I have fallen many times, but I continue because I know that one day I will make it, just as I have returned to driving after two years
In addition to total recovery, it has been proposed three other objectives for 2025: make the disease known, find money for research and organize meetings between patients, family members and professionals, “I want to do my bit to help people like one person helped me. I will never forget how one person changed my life.” person I met in Toledo. It was one of the first days they sat me in the wheelchair after months lying down. Pedro, a young boy, approached me and told me. ‘I am a Guillain-Barré like you,’ and he stood up. He told me ‘I was like you, and look at me now. We have to fight, but we recovered from this.’ I was so moved, and what he told me helped me so much, that from that day on I have dedicated myself to helping people, which is what I want to continue doing,” he says excitedly.
For now, he wants to contact patients and, with his experience, help them move forward, but in the future his goal goes further, “I want us to unite, perhaps create an association… to fight together against this disease that changes your life so much.” life from one day to the next.
#Hernán #Cortés #Soria #GuillainBarré #syndrome #told #survived #years #recover
