Carlota, International Patient Ambassador:
To be brave means to be the best version of yourself to the limit, with no fears, with no hesitating, with no doubts.
Carla, Carlota's Mother:
Well, the story of Carlota starts in a very nice and beautiful way because I wanted to wait to have another child until my first was old enough to be independent. So I wait seven years and a half, and we were expecting Carlota.
Tata, Carlota's Grandmother:
[foreign language 00:00:46]
Carla:
Carlota was a baby that needed a lot of stuff. She was crying from the start to the end. So I was like, something is not correct. I still always guessing around and telling the doctors, "I think there's something wrong." So I told the doctor, "Please, make her all the exams necessary to know that everything is correct." And he told me like, "Okay, Carla, you were right. Carlota has a brain palsy." And he told the name that now it's easy for me to say like, my name is hemiparesis spastica, is Carlota's left. A spastic hemiparesic.
So grieving becomes every, I think, hopefully not, but every mom's situation after diagnosis. But then even though you fail and fail and step up and fail again and fall, and fall and fall, you have to step up because life continues.
Tata:
[foreign language 00:02:53]
Carla:
Being accepted as the Shriner family, oh, wow. Finding Shriner Hospital was the gift of my life, on all of all my family life.
Carlota:
So I have had five surgeries at the hospital. The first one was when I was five, and then the next one was until I was 14. When I was 14, it was a really big, complicated surgery.
Carlos Armando Velsco-Hidalgo, MD, Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon at Shriners Children's Mexico:
[foreign language 00:04:02]
Carlota:
In Shriner's, they treat you the best way possible. All the attention, the help, the medical feedback, it's amazing. You wouldn't get that anywhere else. Every single person there, they make you love yourself more.
Carla:
To be blessed to have Carlota as my daughter and as my companion these years has inspired my life because nothing has been easy. But we've been there to support each other for the good, for the bads. And looking back, just make me feel so proud.
Carlota:
I'm really proud of myself. I feel confident. I feel strong. I feel capable of showing the world what I want to show, and I'm looking forward to being an Olympic champion and the best international patient ambassador that they have had in Shriner's history.
