A crippling misdiagnosis. At 61, Rufino Borrego enjoys life and the use of his two legs. Nothing extraordinary for the healthy person. With the difference that this Portuguese has just recovered the mobility of his lower limbs after being handicapped in the legs for 43 years. From the age of 13 until today he has lived with the constraint of having to travel in a wheelchair and not being able to play football or walk.
What he considers to be a miracle is in fact a medical error: in the 1960s, the Portuguese suffering from both legs was treated at the Santa Maria hospital in Lisbon. He was then diagnosed with incurable muscular dystrophy. The verdict is implacable and the Portuguese resigns himself to having to spend his life in a wheelchair.
No bitterness towards doctors
But a dramatic turn of events in 2010, during a consultation with a neurologist, the latter told him that the pathology he thought he was suffering from was actually quite different: Rufino was suffering from a myasthenia graviscongenital, a rare autoimmune disease which leads to a muscular weakness. This new diagnosis changes the course of his life: a simple medicine against asthma allows him to heal and walk again.
the Journal de Noticias who reports this story specifies that the sexagenarian has no resentment towards the doctors at the origin of this misdiagnosis. He concentrates on the present moment and can again walk to get his newspaper and go about his business in complete freedom.
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