gymsmile for JUAN JOSÉ

Juan José Vergara Cuervo is a 17-year-old young man living in the city of Bogotá. Since birth, he has faced significant health challenges that have deeply shaped his life story and that of his family, who have accompanied him with love, dedication, and strength through every stage of his journey.

During his mother’s pregnancy, everything proceeded normally until the 28th week of gestation, when she developed severe preeclampsia, forcing doctors to induce labor early. Prior to birth, a lung maturation process was performed to increase the baby’s chances of survival. Juan José was born on April 6, 2008, via cesarean section at only 28 weeks of gestation, weighing 820 grams and measuring 34 centimeters. Due to his extreme prematurity, he was immediately transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit, where he remained in an incubator under strict medical supervision.

During his stay in intensive care, he required mechanical ventilation for three days and feeding through a nasogastric tube with breast milk. During that time, he presented several medical complications, including episodes of fever, intestinal infection, and neonatal jaundice, which necessitated isolation and four blood transfusions. He remained in the incubator for approximately three months until reaching a weight of nearly 2,950 grams, at which point he was finally able to leave the hospital and return home with his family.

However, his health journey remained complex. During his first year of life, he had to be hospitalized on several occasions for episodes of bronchiolitis, bronchopneumonia, and gastrointestinal reflux. Over time, he also developed hydrocephalus, requiring the placement of a right intraventricular shunt.

As he grew, his mother began to notice that his development was different from that of other children his age. For this reason, they sought evaluations from rehabilitation specialists, who finally confirmed the diagnosis of cerebral palsy with spastic mixed quadriparesis and dystonia, in addition to microcephaly, epilepsy, and psychomotor delay. This diagnosis represented a profound change in the life of the entire family, who began a long road of medical consultations, hospitalizations, therapies, and rehabilitation processes.

Throughout his life, Juan José has attended various institutions and foundations where he has received physical, occupational, and speech therapies, along with constant check-ups with specialist doctors. A large part of his childhood has been spent between medical treatments and rehabilitation processes, which have been fundamental to improving his health and quality of life.

Today, thanks to the love, care, and constant support of his mother, father, and older sister, Juan José has achieved significant progress. His family has been present since the very first moment, providing unconditional support and adapting their lives to assist him with each of his needs.

At home, his mother performs daily stimulation activities that reinforce the therapies he receives. These include physical and occupational exercises, playing with different textures, activities with therapy balls and rollers, painting with tempera, exercises in front of the mirror, and language stimulation by constantly talking to him, sharing moments of laughter, and practicing rolling movements in bed. They also seek to create recreational spaces such as trips to the park, the mall, or walks around the neighborhood, with the goal of providing Juan José with leisure time and different experiences that contribute to his emotional well-being.

For his family, having a rehabilitation gym at home would be a very important tool to guarantee the continuity of his daily therapies, facilitating exercises that help strengthen his mobility, improve his functional capacity, and reduce discomfort associated with his condition. Furthermore, it would allow the rehabilitation process to be carried out constantly, safely, and adapted to his needs, without depending exclusively on traveling to medical centers.

Juan José’s story is one of love, resilience, and perseverance, where every step forward, no matter how small it may seem, represents a significant achievement for him and his entire family, who continue to work with hope and dedication to provide him with a better quality of life.