12 Days: Mother seeks help for daughter with seizure disorder

RIO GRANDE CITY — Paula Gomez doesn’t ask for much, but her overwhelming needs are plain.

Her 15-year-old daughter has cerebral palsy and mental retardation. The girl, whose motor skills are at an infantile level, is also speech-impaired. A seizure disorder complicates care for Paola Rodriguez, who has not seen a neurologist for at least two years.

Her feeble frame resembles that of a young child instead of a teenage girl.

“She needs to see a doctor,” Gomez said in Spanish during a recent interview at her home in the impoverished Las Lomas neighborhood near Rio Grande City. “But I can’t afford it.”

Gomez baby-sits, cleans houses, washes laundry and sells homemade food for a living, barely earning enough for bills, food and other necessities. The family scrimps and saves what little money it can to buy prescription medication for Paola across the border in Camargo, Tamps., where she was last treated by a specialist.

“I don’t ask for myself,” Gomez said. “I just want help for her.”

‘SHE SHAKES’

The girl’s health and overall happiness depend on more than the occasional dose of medicine her family can afford. Paola likely will never be able to communicate effectively — she expresses herself only by crying when she is upset and screaming when she is pleased.

She can’t perform any motor activities on her own, and she needs special equipment to sit, sleep, bathe and eat comfortably.

Gomez said she doesn’t know what causes the seizures, which are growing worse. All she can do is coax her daughter and wait for them to stop.

“She shakes,” Gomez said. “I just hold her … make sure she knows (I am) with her.”

Paola’s fragile body goes stiff during the convulsions — her mother worries one day a seizure might cause her to bite onto her tongue or even choke on it. The girl’s bed is not equipped with a railing to keep her from falling to the ground if she has convulsions in her sleep.

“The attacks are getting more frequent,” Gomez said. “Maybe she needs a change of medicine.”

Paola’s convulsions began when she was 5 months old. As she grew older, her mother noticed she behaved differently from other infants her age.

Mexican doctors eventually told Gomez that her daughter would not live more than a year.

“The world fell on me,” the mother said. “My little girl was going to die.”

Gomez fell into a severe depression through most of her daughter’s infant life. She rarely left her home in Camargo, instead tending vigilantly to her baby girl’s well-being.

Years later, Paola still depends on her mother to feed her, to bathe her, to move her.

“I get frustrated when she gets sick,” Gomez said. “She can’t tell me: ‘It hurts here.’ She totally depends on me … like a baby.”

LONELY CHRISTMAS

Paola’s younger brothers quietly tiptoe across the room while their mother cradles the girl and feeds her instant mashed potatoes.

“She’s good to open up her little beak,” Gomez said, smiling. “She eats a lot.”

Kevin, 10, and Angel, 6, say their big sister sometimes cries when they leave for school in the morning, watching them longingly as they board the yellow bus.

The boys help their mother care for Paola and their brother Cesar, who is 6 months old.

“Shh,” Kevin said as Angel walked past their sleeping brother. “Don’t wake him.”

Gomez and her boyfriend cannot afford Christmas presents for her four children this year. They plan to spend the holiday alone in their small, two-bedroom home, buried under blankets to ward off the chilly December air. The family will dine on a donated turkey given to them by a charity.

“We’ll just be here, alone,” Gomez said. “There will be nothing big for Christmas.”

‘I WANT MANY THINGS’

Gomez and her children are the eighth family featured in the 12th annual “12 Days of Christmas.” The series, coordinated by the United Way and The Monitor, profiles local families in need and asks Rio Grande Valley residents to help them in their time of hardship.

Above all, Paola needs money for a fitted wheelchair, a bathing station, medical attention, a feeder seat and a bed equipped with a railing. Her teachers said she also requires outpatient therapy services. The girl needs diapers, food, clothes and other basic necessities — her younger brothers say the girl’s favorite thing to eat is Gerber baby food.

She and her family need a heater to get through the cold winter.

Besides new clothes and winter jackets, Kevin and Angel want gifts this year.

“I want many things,” Kevin said in Spanish when asked what he would like for Christmas — his mother immediately hushed the young boy as he proceeded to elaborate, warning him not ask for unnecessary items.

Although Gomez said the boys would do fine with a new bicycle or soccer ball, Kevin and Angel said they want a Sony PlayStation Portable gaming system.

“They’ve always wanted video games,” Gomez said. “But I don’t have money.”

Paola’s teachers say the girl brings much-needed joy to the special education department at Fort Ringgold Elementary School in Rio Grande City. Her class is usually very silent when she is absent, her teacher Jessica Ellert said.

“She’s a very lovable child,” Ellert said. “She’s really tiny. She’s my little Barbie doll.”

Ellert, who was Paola’s teacher three years ago, said the girl has worn the same clothes since she first met her.

The special education teacher said Gomez saved up for months to afford a simple quinceañera gown so her daughter could celebrate her 15th birthday this year. Paola’s teachers say the girl wears the same tattered, snug jacket to school on cold days.

“Her mom tries really hard,” Ellert said.

Paola’s most memorable trait is her smile, the teacher said.

“No matter how bad her day has been, she always smiles,” she said. “I think that’s beautiful.”

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Ana Ley covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4428.