Born on December 21, 1996, Diemesson Martins, a challenged child, entered the Project "Child Jesus of Nazareth" twenty-one months ago. He is the son of Eliane da Silva Oliveira and Charles Farias Martins.
His mother Eliane says that she did not have any problems during the first seven months of pregnancy. At the beginning of the eighth month she began to bleed and this continued until the end of her pregnancy. At the end of the nine months, the mother began to feel labor pains and remained with her left side without feeling and she fainted constantly. After being in labor for one day, the doctors decided to do a Caesarian. Diemesson was born and afterwards fainted frequently due to a lack of oxygen. Thus began the struggle to live. It was difficult for his mother to accept a child with special necessities. The diagnosis of Diemesson's problem is "Quadriplegia spasms", where the principal characteristic is spasms in his muscles.
In March, 2003 we included Diemesson in the Project with the objective of assisting him with physical therapy exercises, which would help to diminish
the muscular spasms. When we took Diemessson for an evaluation with Dr
Angelica she told that of all the children that I was assisting, Diemesson would have less possibility of showing progress because his problem is very grave.
I began to assist him daily with exercises of stretching and stimulus always with faith in God who can do everything. His hands were always closed because of the spasms.
With six months of assistance I arrived in his house and everyone was surprised because Diemesson who before could not roll over, lifted up his arms, opens his hands and took hold of a tablecloth that was hanging down from the table. Today with twenty-one months of help, he can turn over, has control of his neck and opens his hands.
The thing that impresses me most in Diemesson's family is the determination of his mother. She supports the family working from sun up to sun down with a basin on her head selling drinks made from acai, buriti and other regional fruits. According to her, the things that saddens her most is that while she battles to survive, her husband, Diemesson's father is addicted to drugs and many times takes the utensils from the house to pay for the drugs. Many times she does not have anyone to care for Diemesson and so leaves him alone. At various times, when she arrives back home at 1 pm he has not had anything to eat nor had a bath.
In virtue of what was mentioned, I conclude with the certainty that this family needs not only our assistance but also our spiritual and even material support.
to an other report...
