“To every kid who feels like giving up, I want you to know this: even if it seems like there’s only a one-in-a-million chance, there is still hope.”
This is a story of a girl once tethered by pain who learned to walk again, with steel in her spine and a sunrise in her chest. Where bones once bent in silent plea, a promise bloomed in quiet symmetry.
While other children ran without looking back, Jessica Cruz, 11, moved cautiously. What others saw as stillness was a young girl resisting the gradual betrayal of her own body.
Whispers Beneath the Surface
The story that began long before the scans and opinions, at birth, with a spinal cord that developed differently and dangerously.
“Growing up, I always knew I was different,” she said quietly.
Her spine’s curvature compressed her lungs, drastically limiting their capacity. As her condition progressed, the curve in her spine tightened its grip around her chest, rendering even small acts, like speaking in full sentences or laughing too long, a threat to her breathing.
Years of medical consultations yielded few solutions and more uncertainty. In the Philippines, specialists proposed a 10- to 12-hour high-risk procedure involving magnetic rods, a method fraught with the possibility of irreversible paralysis.
What the Body Could Not Say
To grow up under the weight of a quiet condition is to become fluent in silence.
She learned how to sit longer, move slower, and disappear when pain crested too sharply. Even laughter sometimes took her breath away. Her face-to-face education was paused in the latter part of fourth grade, though she continued as a Grade 5 student under MDSF’s PLAY Homeschool program. In a way, her world shrank from the scale of playgrounds to the perimeter of her own home.
“I could not run, play rough, or even get sick without it becoming a big deal,” Jessica said.
What she endured daily was a condition few could see and even fewer could understand. Her spinal cord was not only twisted but also split congenitally, tethered to the sacral vertebrae, and left exposed along its full length due to prior surgical intervention. Compounding these issues were multiple syringomyelic cysts, fluid-filled sacs that had formed from her neck down, threatening the spinal cord with every centimeter of growth.
The risk of paralysis was imminent.
Still, she dreamed.
“After the pain and the challenge, something beautiful is waiting for you,” Jessica said.
A Place Beyond the Horizon
In their search for hope beyond home, Jessica’s family looked for light.
They found it in Dubai, at Adam Vital Hospital, an institution recognized as a Center of Excellence for Orthopaedic and Spine Care, where cases others refused found a final chance. There, Jessica’s records were reviewed by Prof. Dr. Hany Abdel Gawwad, a globally known spinal deformity expert.
Dr. Hany called her case one of the most complex he had ever encountered—a diagnosis that bore more weight than reassurance. With the spine severely compressing her lungs, the spinal cord exposed and malformed, and her body emaciated from years of illness, the margin for error was impossibly thin.
But with meticulous preparation—including advanced 3D simulation techniques, personalized surgical mapping, and continuous coordination with anesthesia and intensive care—Dr. Hany and his team made the decision to proceed.
“This surgery was a race against time,” he later said.
“Conventional methods posed enormous risks, but through customized planning, we were able to correct her deformity safely and successfully. Seeing her walk again—without paralysis—is the greatest reward.”
The Quiet Return to Being
In the days following the surgery, silence fell again—the kind that follows wonder.
Jessica began to move, first with assistance, then alone.
“I had many sleepless nights in the hospital. But little by little, I made progress,” Jessica said.
She started walking longer distances, sitting up for longer periods, and eventually was discharged.
“I kept getting stronger, and soon, we returned home,” she said.
“What makes me smile these days is the thought that I’m finally straight,” she added.
“After years of hoping and praying, I was given a life-changing chance, and it gave me a new beginning. I feel like a real kid,” she added.
Jessica’s story is no longer just a medical case. It is a record of what happens when precision science meets radical hope. It is a reminder that support from our family defines how we meet the world.
And today, Jessica meets it on her feet.
By: Samantha Venice Alejandria and Jaimee Victoria Cruz
(044) 766-1313 / 7730090 B.S. Aquino Avenue, Tangos, Baliuag, Bulacaninfo@mdsf.edu.ph
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