Interview with Mirtha

 

Before publishng the previous chapter, the story of my dear friend Mirtha, I sent it to her for her approval and corrections. When she read it, she needed to clarify a few details, but more than that, she wanted to stress and explain why the events of that day during their stay with us in Buenos Aires were so significant.

I decided to ask her a series of questions to better comprehend her medical journey from the beginning. 

"How old were you when you contracted polio?" I began.

"I was a baby. I was eight months. My parents were moved from Cabrera, where they pastored a Brethren church, to the city of Laboulaye to build up the church there. I was six or seven months at the time, and forty days after our arrival in Laboulaye, I contracted polio."

"What were the first symptoms?"

"My sister Sara told me that the first thing my mother noticed was that I only moved my eyes and the first phalanx, the tips of my fingers. But Mom had told me that when she tried to pick me up to feed me, it seemed like I had no bones, no spine. I was limp like a rag. She picked me up and I would fold over every which way. It was such a huge blow for her to see this. She immediately sent my sisters, Eunice and Sara, to get the doctor who lived across the street, Dr. Boris Joffe, a Jew. He came with another doctor who lived on the corner of that same street."

"I cannot imagine the anguish your parents must have felt."

"Daddy was not there because he had begun to cover the territory of his parish. The Laboulaye church had started working in two other towns, General Levalle and Jovita. So he was not there when Mother discovered my condition. 
The two doctors came and immediately detected the problem."

"Mrs. Siccardi," they said, "there are four cases of polio in the city. This is the fifth and it is the worst. This little girl is not going to live. The paralysis is only millimeters away from touching her brain."

"How painful for your dad to be met with this news when he returned! And, to think that his wife had to face this alone. Unimaginable!"

"Daddy was such an evangelizer. Sara tells me, and I also have memories, that he systematically visited each member of the church or had them into his office. And whenever he went out, he carried gospel tracts, a very common method of evangelism back then, and as he went about visiting the believers, he always gave out tracts and shared the Lord with anyone he came across.
He visited the two towns, Levalle and Jovita, regularly every couple weeks, evangelizing the town. And as he gained people for the Lord, he began to gather them. In both towns he had rented a small hall and there he also made his meals and coffee with a small kerosene burner he took with him.

Dr. Joffe told my parents, 'Of course, you are pastors, and the baby, well . . . someone in the church must have kissed her on the mouth and thus spread the polio virus.'

My mother did not like me to be passed around, but since they were new to the church she didn't feel she could be too hard on them, and after all I was the baby of the church. Everyone loved to hold me."

"The photos you sent me, show that something truly unexplainable must have taken place despite Dr. Joffe's dire diagnostic."

18 months, in the walker

In Tito's little car

Three years old
Practicing walking on the sidewalk.
Having some difficulty with the left leg.

The family in Laboulaye

Mirtha, Mom, Tito

"Did Dr. Joffe continue treating you and watching your progress while you lived in Laboulaye?"

"Yes, and throughout his whole life he followed my case. His whole family helped. I still have a rag doll that his daughter Babi, Eunice's friend, brought me one time when I was in his office. He was applying a polio treatment they were using in Buenos Aires, called diathermy, consisting of wrapping me in little warm blankets and applying heat. He taught my parents some little exercises as well.
You know, I still have a visual memory, visual and even physical. I remember lying on the cot, wrapped up, warm and comfortable, the doctor by my side, Babi and her mother coming in, carressing me, bringing me the doll . . . well, the entire family was involved.
When they returned to Israel in '48, he stayed in touch. His last letter, when he was nearing the end, was signed, 'Your friend and possibly brother.'"

Dr. Boris Joffe and family

"At some point in time, your family moved to Almafuerte to take charge of the church there, right?"

"That's right. Almafuerte seemed, in many ways, like a paradise to us. But at the same time, that is where my scoliosis worsened seriously. The curvature of my spine was first noticed when I was six or seven years old. However, during puberty it accelerated alarmingly.
When we arrived in Almafuerte, I was nine, not yet ten. So, they sent me to the school that was practically next door to the mission. And, well, that was a whole period of tears and smiles. That was the time of many trips to the city of Córdoba. Then came the Bible Institute and the joy the students brought.
The first specialists to take on my case, when I was eleven or twelve years old, were a team from the Children's Hospital in Córdoba. It was a time of unending consultations with specialists.

Then, Eunice, my older sister, arranged for us to meet with Dr. Van Domsoler, a specialist in the British Hospital where she worked. That is when we were hosted by the lovely Hoyt family in Don Bosco, in the outskirts of Buenos Aires."

"Now, going back to that visit, tell us why that day stands out in your memory." 

"The day we went to hear the final conclusion of the doctors in the British Hospital, it was a very hard time. My mother and father felt the gravity of the situation. I was probably not as conscious of its seriousness.

The head doctor in charge of my case was Dr. Van Domsoler. He said, 'I must be very honest with you. There is no hope. There is no way, no treatment, no surgery, nothing that can stop the scoliosis. The curvature of the spine cannot be corrected, and will no doubt advance.' He said this with great kindness.
In the many, many consultations I had been through until then in Córdoba, I had never felt scared. Now, for the first time ever, I began to cry. I couldn't help the tears falling. Then he hugged me. I can remember with what tenderness he drew me in close to his heart. 'Don't cry, little one,' he said. 'Whoever looks at your face will not even notice your back.' That did not prove true [laughing], however it was comforting then."

"What happened next?"

"When we left the hospital, the revolution that ousted Perón had begun. Your parents were very worried because we were downtown and unaware of what was going on.
My father and mother had taken me to the botanical garden to get my mind off things. They bought some sandwiches to eat there. But we were seeing strange things. The sky would get very dark, and we heard strange noises. Then the caretaker came and said, 'Please, you must leave.' He told them what was happening. 
I really don't know how we got back at that time, probably by train. And when we arrived back to your house, your dad had been watching from the rooftop and praying that we'd make it back alive.
What happened next was so special. That very day the organ or harmonium had arrived! So after dinner . . .  (Your mom, as always, had prepared a wonderful meal. She made waffles, so delicious! I've never had waffles again. We didn't have waffle irons in Argentina. I think they are available now, but I haven't seen any around here.) Anyway, we all gathered around the organ, the whole family, my mom and dad, your parents, your little brothers . . . 'You play first! You play first!' you insisted.
So I sat down, and without giving it much thought I played the hymn that stood out to me,

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;

There is no shadow of turning with Thee . . .

[Here she began to sing.]        Great is Thy faithfulness!

                                                Great is Thy faithfulness!

Do you remember? My mother felt it in her heart like a bomb. From then on it was her favorite hymn.  You know, that moment there in your house had such an impact. To the end of her life, Mother believed that my spinal column would not get worse and would even straighten.
I know your parents were of great comfort to my dad and mother. I went with you to your room, and we talked and laughed and had fun. Yes, of course, I was still emotional, in shock, but your company did me so much good. It was so wonderful to be with you. I just wanted to tell you that because it was so important to me. That very hard moment in the British Hospital and then the very sweet moment in your home."

"What happened next in your medical journey?"

"We went back to the doctors in Córdoba, but no longer to the Children's Hospital. Dr. Celina Carbonell, a believer, took me under her care.

Mrs. Loree Sickel [widowed missionary with more than three decades of service in Argentina] had opened a missionary fund to cover the expenses for the best treatments and care available. I was interned for quite a long time in a German clinic under the supervision of Dr. Pablo Busse Grawitz, also a believer.

It was a lovely clinic, and I was very well cared for and underwent any number of tests and treatments. My mother was there with me as I was bedridden. 
My stay there also served as an inspiration later when I wrote the novel. I could go out on the balcony of the German chalet. From there I watched Peter, one of the doctor's sons, so friendly, and he became one of the characters. The youngest son with the angry look became the protagonist.

From there I ended up in the very famous Clínica Romagosa. All this thanks to the abundant, marvellous, generous offering that sustained us, Mrs. Sickel always making sure we never lacked anything medical expertise could offer.

These clinics did the best they could with what they had to offer at that time. Dr. Carbonell even traveled to the US to present my case at a medical congress. There was a new surgery, but was extremely risky at the time. She said to my mother, 'Herminia, if Mirtha were my daughter, I would not allow her to have the surgery, there are no guarantees.'

That is when the team of doctors, there were 32 in the end, decided that I had to be horizontal, because my spine continued to fold. It was collapsing one of my lungs, crushing it; and my heart was in a horizontal position. I have a laid down heart not standing vertical like most. So the only way was to be in bed all day. I could get up 20 minutes a day to do certain corrective exercises. My dad and mom helped me, and my sisters  when they were home.

My place in the world for five years

I was bedridden from 14 to 19 years of age. Oh, and at night I hung from a contraption that held me by my jaw and nape, back of the neck. The head of the bed was raised with bricks under the head posts and my body weight kept me stretched out all night. The device could swivel so I was able to change positions at will and sleep on my stomach or back or on my side, but always hanging. All those years left a callous on my jaw. I was so thin and pale, my sister called me little greenhouse flower.
For my fifteenth birthday, they took me to a professional photographer for this photo. (It appears they combed my hair, too.)"

"How were you able to overcome such extreme limitations? Perhaps the paragraph on the back cover of your book answers this briefly: From my position I study, read, and write. I am finishing the fourth year of high school. Brillando para El is the first complete book I've written. I started it when I was fifteen and finished it at age sixteen. I thank God that I can keep on writing for Him even from bed."

First edition

Second edition

"What happened after those five years?"

"Throughout that time, there were regular check ups, tests, xrays, every month or two months. Eunice or someone would take them to the doctor for the medical team to examine. Then, after five years, when Eunice took the xray, the doctors called her in. 'What happened here?' they asked. 'What do you mean?' she said. 'The specter is gone!' they said. 'Your little sister was expected to die before age twenty or be paralyzed in a short time. The curvature is detained and her spine has even stretched some, and the spinal cord is not compressed.'
It was only then that they told us and we learned the extent of the danger: my spinal cord could've broken at any moment, my heart stop functioning or I could suffocate for lack of air. I was never short of breath, even though I only have less than a half of one lung that works. I never noticed it, except that I tire more often than others who do not have that problem."

"Were you then able to live a normal life?"

"Briefly, and as an example of my active life, when I was in Buenos Aires years later and took on the responsibility for the Christian children's magazine, El Puentecito, I was also teaching at a community college, I drove Eunice's car all around the city coming and going from my jobs. I think Eunice and my mother worried about me overdoing it.
Finally, throughout my lifetime I received five sentences of certain death or total paralysis. None of that has happened so far. As far as I know I am alive. I am well. Although currently, I've been going through a more difficult period due to total exhaustion after being a caregiver for Eunice and my beloved husband in their last years of life. It is very difficult to overcome and has even affected my mobility. If the Lord wills, I am not leaving just yet. I do believe I still have more to accomplish."

"Thank you, Mirtha, for sharing the story of your miraculous life, eighty years this June 17!"

"Yes, that is the story, a constant miracle. 
Miracles are not always noisy and sudden. God works as He wills. In my case, there was no instant miracle. Rather, it has been a daily miracle throughout these many long years. It is a miracle I live day by day that becomes so normal and natural that I often forget that my life is a miracle. However, we all live by miracles, as the Lord gives each of us the quota of health that we need."