Living with a spinal cord injury since childhood: "Bruna doesn't set limits for herself."

BarcelonaBruna's favorite subject is physical education, like most children her age. She enjoys playing tag and fish with her friends in the playground, and also the activities she does outside of school, such as swimming and drawing with her little brother, Pau. Unlike other 7-year-olds, however, she does rehabilitation twice a week at the Institut Guttmann to improve her handling of the wheelchair she has used since she was very young. When she was just one month old, she was diagnosed with a tumor pressing on her spinal cord. She was treated with chemotherapy at the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, and the cancer eventually disappeared. But the spinal cord injury that prevents her from walking will always be with her.

Although these types of injuries mark a turning point in the lives of those who suffer from them, at home they have never abandoned them; they have adapted to Bruna's reality and work tirelessly to ensure that she has a childhood like that of the rest of her classmates. "Our goal at home is independence and happiness. There's nothing else," her mother, Mireia, explains firmly. Like any other girl her age, she sets new goals and challenges (at the time of the interview, for example, she's decided to try climbing for the first time on a small climbing wall in the school's gym), and her parents simply emphasize that if she wants to achieve something, she must start before everyone else.

"Everything takes a little more time, but we'll do it," her mother tells her, pushing her ass forward to grab a new hold. Aside from improving her wheelchair handling—learning how to go up or down a step or reverse—in rehabilitation, she works on everyday tasks, such as getting dressed or sitting in a chair, and she also does aquatic therapy. In fact, she really enjoys the water; her parents took her to Paris to see last year's Paralympic Games, and she's been swimming ever since, because she had such a great time watching the swimmers compete. "If we don't set limits for her, she doesn't have any. She's very cool. She's still young and often doesn't see her disability, so we tell her not to set limits, that she'll go far," says Mireia.

This is one of the biggest differences when rehabilitation is done by a child or an adult, according to Clàudia Teixidó, a doctor specializing in pediatric rehabilitation at the Institut Guttmann. She explains that adults focus on all the activities they can no longer do because of their spinal cord injury, while children look for ways to achieve their goals and the things that interest them despite their limitations. "They have much more initiative and much more enthusiasm for recovery: if I can't walk, I'll find other ways to cope," says Teixidó about her patients.

Fewer traffic accident injuries

Since most spinal cord injuries occur in adults, there is very little scientific literature on the incidence in children. Teixidó explains that most studies combine adult and child populations, which is why she argues that more specific information on pediatric patients is needed. "It is key because early intervention and multidisciplinary care can make a difference in their functional recovery," the expert maintains, referring to the need for more data on the child and adolescent population with spinal cord injuries.

The center has conducted an analysis of pediatric patients admitted for this reason over the last 20 years, and the results indicate that in two decades, traffic accidents have gone from being the leading cause of spinal cord injuries in minors to the fifth, that is, a decrease of 80%. Teixidó attributes this drastic decrease to the efforts made in road safety, greater awareness about seatbelt use, and improved approved child seats. However, the reduction has brought to light more injuries due to medical causes, such as tumors, which currently account for one in five pediatric cases, like Bruna's, and also strokes.

Faced with this new scenario, the expert argues that new preventive strategies are needed for the early detection of cancers and accidents that can cause spinal cord injuries. Mireia recalls how her daughter, at just five weeks old, stopped moving her legs, cried a lot, and they didn't know what was wrong with her. It was a "very tough" week until the tumor was diagnosed, as they initially thought it was colic or a urinary tract infection. However, she acknowledges that the medical team detected the tumor "quickly," and in less than 24 hours, chemotherapy treatment began.

Seven years later, Bruna is "increasingly independent" and now teaches her younger brother the Institut Guttmann gym. He trails behind her everywhere, but can't catch up. Her parents are following them from a distance and are convinced their daughter can achieve anything she sets her mind to.