Hospital bosses are in the limelight again this week – but this time it is for a good reason. They have given brave double amputee Pathyelli (Pathy) Sousa de Nascimento the news she has been waiting for: she will be measured for ‘new legs’ this week, and they will be ready within 20 days.
After that will come the next brave steps in a life that was turned upside down – seeing her lose not just both legs, but also six fingers – as a result of tick fever last summer.
Pathy is now beginning to look even further ahead. She’s starting to believe that a return to “a normal life” could just be possible.
“I am so happy!” the young mum told us, adding that the news that prosthetics were on the way took her completely by surprise.
“I honestly thought they would take much longer. The whole process seemed to be stuck. No-one had any answers when I asked them.”
But then she had the idea of writing a personal letter to Algarve hospital director Pedro Nunes.
With only one typing finger left on her hugely damaged hands, Pathy took her time and chose her words carefully. They worked a treat.
“We are very happy to help this young lady,” Pedro Nunes told the Resident. “It is a tragic story, and she has been incredibly brave”.
Indeed, Pathy’s vibrant Facebook page – a way she manages to stay in touch with well-wishers – is full of the positivity the 31-year-old Brazilian has taken pains to hold on to throughout her horrific ordeal.
“What’s important is not to give up… Life is too precious,” she writes in one post.
“We are the size of what we are, and our faith is the cement on which we place each brick to build our conquests.”
Thoughts like that lead to dreams, and Pathy has those too. “My next one is to be able to work,” she said with a smile you could hear down the telephone.
“I am not sure what kind of work: a telephonist maybe, or receptionist – just something so that I feel I have a normal life again.”
Pathy’s strength has touched thousands. She has over 2,200 followers on Facebook and readers of the Resident have also played their part, donating clothes, toys for her three-year-old daughter Sofia, and bottle-tops.
The bottle top collection – originally designed to pay for top-quality prosthetics – is still ongoing, but now it is in the hands of the hospital which will be using it for other ends.
Meantime, the GNR of Armação de Pêra and Armação Solidária are holding a fundraising lunch and cycle ride on April 6 to help Pathy and husband Carlos upgrade their rural home – so small it hasn’t even space for a wheelchair.
“I have to get around on an office chair,” she explained. “There are all sorts of improvements we’d like to make, but as you might expect money is always a problem…”
Anyone who would like to help Pathy in her long road to recovery can watch her progress via her “Vamos Ajudar a Pathy” Facebook page.
Charity cycle ride and lunch
April 6 – Armação de Pêra
Start: Primary School at 9.30am
Route: 14km/easy
Lunch: School pavilion at 1pm
Cost: €10 adults/€5 children
