Surgery allows young woman paralyzed in fall 10 years ago to walk again

At 16, Yadira Perdomo of Bogot á, Colombia, was often taunted by other students at her high school for her small-town accent and her taste in music. When her mother asked her if she’d like to change schools, she replied that she was determined to stick it out and finish the year.But the bullying escalated. One day at school, a group of students lured Perdomo near a window on the third floor — and then pushed her out.In that instant, everything changed. The impact from the fall left Perdomo with fractured vertebra in the lower back and the loss of all sensation in her legs. She could no longer walk or control much of her lower bodily function, requiring her to use a wheelchair and a catheter.“I had to begin to understand that this was my new situation,” Perdomo said.But just as Perdomo had been determined to stand up to the students bullying her, she was also determined to walk again. By a stroke of luck, her situation changed in 2010 when she was referred to  Dr. Shlomo Raz, a UCLA urologist who was at the time working as a visiting professor at a hospital called Clínica El Bosque in Bogot á.“As a result of Yadira’s injury, she had lost control of a lot of the muscles people use without even thinking about in our everyday life,” said Raz, who is a professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the chief of pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery.Ryan Hatoum/UCLA HealthYadira Perdomo and Dr. Shlomo RazIn Bogot á, Raz performed a ...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news