The Limitless Lance Corporal

looking at Lens core Pro Emil Mendes a medic an orthopedist in the Belize Defense Force you wouldn't know that he is paralyzed from the waist down but he is and attends to his patients in a wheelchair Mendez has learned to live with the consequence of a spinal injury that changed his life forever so after Dean took courses in in the med in this medical field my boss recommended me to to go to Guyana it was an orthopedic technician course a one-year course in Guyana so I was recommended to that and I went to Guyana for that I was there three months in the country when unfortunately I went out one night to buy food and upon going back to to the base and this happened right in front of the beast in the military base in Guyana when a individual approached me and I was a victim of an armed robbery that's when this individual shot me four times the first bullet hit my spinal cord and it left me paralyzed at that point I was laying down on the ground and I immediately knew that I was paralyzed as a medical technician Orthopedic technician I knew my symptoms and I I knew I was in in that condition of being paralyzed this incident happened the 22nd of December 2014. the general of the gdf approached me when best visit me in the hospital and propose that they will fly me back to my country I honestly never wanted to come back in that condition I never wanted my parents to see me in that condition so I put to my mind that I wanted to heal I wanted to get better and most of all I never wanted to leave my studies halfway there so what I did was I only took one one exactly one month off despite that I did multiple surgeries I said I will only take one month off and then I will go back to school I need to be grateful for the medics in Guyana because they were the ones that took me to the hospital every day and bring me back to the to the base they were taking care of me every single day until I finished my course so I did my complete one here course and then until finishing the course I came back that courage and determination is still visible today when this soldier of eight years independently moves around the camp carrying out his duties through all the facilities which are wheelchair accessible despite this injury Mendes went on to complete his associate's degree and become the first disabled person to compete in La Ruta Maya challenge in 2017. there are times that he does face particular challenges in the workplace but he has learned that there is no job that is too big or too difficult for him to successfully treat with the assistance of his colleagues Orthopedic technician yes I kind of have a slight challenges because I am specialized in doing cast I can do casts all parts of the body and there are some parts of the body that require more strength and but I can still do it with the with the assist of my peers so I can tell them all right all these poor patients in this position and I will be doing the wrapping so with with the assistance I can do the job one of the biggest challenges Mendez has not been able to adapt to is the lack of wheelchair accessibility and believes is public transport unfortunately the boss companies here in Belize the boss that we have are like somewhat old-fashioned and for um disabled person especially in a wheelchair is a bit hard to go up in the bus it's hard so I wish that they had more like new new bosses coming in the country and that these bosses have like wheelchair accessibility so like that I can go to the bus terminal and just go on go on On The Bus by myself and that hope even for the busted bus system is an expression of the unbreakable optimism and forward-looking nature that Mendes engenders Joe Marie Lanza 7 News