By Emi Chemat
My sister, Tish Abiera-Reyes, caught polio as a toddler. My mum and her went to a celebration in Manila and she caught it there. She wasn’t the only one – a lot of her friends caught it too – at the same party.
I can only guess that one person (the carrier) brought it to the party attended by people from all over the country and it spread. Just like that. They all went back to their different cities, kids got sick, doctors were frantic, and no one knew what it was.
This was in the 1950s. My family was blessed with many resources. Tish had 13 operations before she turned 21 to ease the strain on the weakened muscles of her right leg. These included surgeries to stop the growth, surgeries to add to the length of the leg, surgeries to adjust the tilt of the leg. And after all that, there were a couple more when she had grown up, to counter complications that arose from polio in the rest of her body.
My sister could drive, she could dance, she could swim, she was super popular, and to top it all – beautiful. But the best part was, she truly was my best friend. She was the best wife to her husband, Ed, an amazing mother to Tina, and the proudest grandmother to Carina. Her world revolved around Carina, and to her very last breath – she passed away in 2019 – I am so sure she was thinking of her granddaughter.
But not all polio stories end this way. Not all are that lucky. I have seen some of my sister’s friends who decided not to undergo the numerous surgeries she went through, and they were confined to wheelchairs, braces, or walking sticks which eventually became walkers and wheelchairs. I have seen some who were not so financially blessed, lying in bed, not able to move freely, and at the mercy of a caregiver. I have seen some who have been able to walk only through sheer persistence, adjusting to life with a leg dangling.
This is not how it should be. We need to stop this from ever happening again. There is a vaccine that can protect these children from the polio virus. Since 1988, Rotary has reduced the number of cases worldwide by 99.9%. But the battle is not over. As long as polio exists anywhere, it is a threat everywhere.
Join us in the fight to eradicate this disease by making a donation of any size to End Polio.
Emi Chemat is president of the Rotary Club of Cypress-Fairbanks, Texas, USA, and Interact co-chair for Rotary District 5890
https://blog.rotary.org/2024/12/04/my-sisters-journey-with-polio/