Doctor graduates after losing speech and not moving arms and legs in PR

After a stroke in 2014, Elaine Luzia dos Santos, then a pharmacist and third-year medical student in Paraná, was left with her body completely paralyzed. Without being able to speak or move her arms and legs, she could only move her eyes.

A year later, despite physical limitations, Elaine returned to Unioeste (State University of Western Paraná), in Cascavel, in the interior of the state. Now in 2022, at age 33, she completed the course, and officially became a doctor.

Upon returning to school, communication was done through a table, organized by lines and letters. “She blinked at the letter she wanted to say and over time we established agility to form the words and sentences”, says the professor of specialized educational assistance, Valderlize Dalgalo, linked to the university, who accompanied her for six years.

The student can hear the teacher, read and understand the information. She just needs help with questions or communicating.

Therefore, during the theoretical and practical classes, Elaine was accompanied at all times by Dalgalo, a service paid for by the institution itself. When she was away, another professional replaced her.

“We say the line first. If the letter she wants is on that line, she blinks. Then we say the letters on that line and she blinks again, forming the words”, explains Dalgalo.

Today, Elaine can hold her head up and move her lips slightly. “I tested software that allowed me to browse the internet, but it broke down and can’t be fixed, so I still need help communicating,” she told the report.

The interview was in writing, via WhatsApp, with the help of a family member who typed the messages. He used the same table of letters, with rows and columns, for the doctor to communicate.

During internships in hospitals, she asked questions (by blinking), followed the patient’s progress, performed diagnosis and procedures. Only in physical examinations did she receive help from her colleagues. Thus, she went through outpatient clinic, health unit, pediatrics, medical clinic, emergency, collective health, orthopedics and surgical medicine.

The friend and classmate Elaine Lima says that the return was not easy. “She shared opinions about what the future would look like and if she could practice the profession. She needed to be strong and warrior from the beginning..

The new doctor says that, despite the stroke, she decided to follow the course because she wanted to fulfill her childhood dream. “That’s when I saw myself as a patient and had to get back to life, in whatever way possible. The motivation was my self-love and the desire to be useful to people. I can’t do everything, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be anything. “

Despite her determination, she claims that she suffered prejudice during the course. “No one spoke to me directly and some colleagues ignored me. Some teachers refused to adapt the tests, but everything changed when I joined the class. They learned to talk to me, helped me and even took me to barbecues. to support me.”

What bothered her the most in this process, says the recent graduate, was having to constantly prove that her cognitive ability, memory, learning and judgment were intact. “People are slow to realize that I’m an adult and I’m in charge of my life. They tend to go to my family members to ask questions about me, even when I’m there. This is very frustrating.”

“Elaine is sensitive, human, brilliant. She studies hard, is focused, never misses, it didn’t matter if the class ended at 1 am, the other day, 7 am she was there. It’s proof that there is no limit to those who fight for their dream” , says her friend Elaine Lima, a classmate.

Dalgalo remembers an appointment with a patient that moved everyone. “A man was hospitalized, very sad, he didn’t eat and received a visit from Elaine. When he found out she was a student, he said: ‘Wow, if she’s there, why am I complaining?’ patient.”

The Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná needed a legal process for inclusion, with authorization from the medical class councils, for adaptations to the student, such as allowing recorded practical classes or supervised internship

“We are not aware of cases similar to Elaine’s in Brazil or in other countries”, says the course coordinator, Alan Araújo. “She did not deprive herself of any medical training activities. She just cannot perform a physical examination on the patient, but she can listen to the reports and make the evaluation because there is no cognitive deficit”.