How I Became Paralyzed

Friends visiting me in the hospital — This is the best picture I have from my time in the hospital. I promise.

Disclaimer: This article is still being written and updated.

June 13, 2022 - Cozumel, Mexico: I woke up unable to feel or move my legs. It was early in the morning. I couldn’t believe this was happening, and in that pure disbelief and hope that maybe I was just having a nightmare, I went back to sleep.

It wasn’t a nightmare- At least, not the bad dream kind. It was real, a living nightmare. Even calling it living feels inaccurate, because I had never felt closer to death.

Let’s rewind a little.

Mirror selfie of Victor with bloodshot red eyes

For the past two weeks, I had what appeared to be nothing more than a cold. It wasn’t until the night before I felt a slight numbness in my feet.

I felt terrible and decided to take a quick picture documenting my bloodshot red eyes.

Little did I know it was just the beginning of a journey I’m still on as of the day I write this article.

Just a disclaimer: This article is difficult for me to write. It’s real and it’s personal. Like everyone always says, you never think it will happen to you. Try as we might to imagine what it is like to experience a crippling disability, deep down, the brutal reality is we all think these things happen to others, never us.

Scuba diving with my buddy Jonathan Parra only one week before becoming paralyzed

For almost two years, I was fulfilling one on of my life-long dreams- to travel the world. I traveled from country to country, hiking, backpacking, scuba diving, surfing, bungee jumping, paragliding, driving cross country in a camper van, and I even worked as a remote software engineer.

I can’t reiterate enough how much I didn’t expect this. I tried to live my life by the motto, “Live every day as if it’s your last.”, not ‘as if it’s your last day not being disabled‘.

Emergency Rooms and Hospital Life

I called my mom. Paralyzed and unable to get out of my own bed, stranded on a small Mexican island, I didn’t know what else to do. I still get emotional thinking about it.

I called the Airbnb host, and within a short period of time she was able to unlock the door to the cabana, and help me to her car. At this point in time, I could lean on someone’s shoulder and keep myself upright at the least.

That didn’t last.

I called my friend Jonathan. He had only recently left to Mexico City after we had hung out in the Quintana Roo area for a couple of weeks. You know you have a true friend when they’re on a flight back within a day.

Cozumel International Hospital

Who would have thought that a hospital dedicated to treating scuba divers suffering from decompression syndrome would have no idea what was happening with me? A neurologist would have to come by boat to look at me, and it would be a couple of hours.

Not to mention, I neglected obtaining international travel insurance. Out of pocket, my costs were expected to be almost $5,000 for a single day. Oh, and you need to pay before receiving any treatment. If you could pay, and you thought you were dying, would you?

After swiping my card and waiting, I lost the feeling in my core, and started losing control of my arms. Slowly, it was getting harder to breath and my voice became weak.

My digestive system began shutting down. I could only urinate at this point if a nurse literally carried me to the bathroom, or at the very least picked me up and placed me in a wheelchair for transport there.

A True Friend

There was nothing they could do for me at Cozumel Hospital. They simply didn’t have the necessary equipment to diagnose me. My options were a transport by ambulance via boat to a hospital in Cancun for $9,000, or leaving the hospital and getting there myself.

Enter Jonathan.

In under a day, he had purchased a last minute flight from Mexico City to Cancun. He made the flight, traveled via bus to Playa Del Carmen, reached the port, took a ferry to the island, and come to the rescue.

Victor in a wheelchair getting off a ferry boat

After he helped me check out of my Airbnb AND bought me a wheelchair, we needed to find a hospital that could figure out what was happening as fast as possible. We were now on our way to the second hospital out of four, Cancun General Hospital.

Cue the ferries, taxis, and Ubers.

I’ll stop the article here for now, and continue updating this over time. It’s a long story.

Long story short, things got a lot worse before they got better, including the partial loss of vision in my right eye, developing meningitis, and more fun medical stuff.

Today, after almost five months, I’m able to walk again. I went from being bedridden and needing to be rolled around on a wheelchair, to taking tiny steps on a walker, to a cane, and finally to walking without assistance.

I’m definitely not back to normal yet. I say “yet”, because a part of me is still holding out hope that I can almost completely recover. For now, I still occasionally use the cane for steps and when wearing a backpack, so as not to fall.

I’m still doing physical therapy, and I’m determined to get my life back.