This is the story of a young girl who survived—and thrived—due to her mother’s enormous determination to make her well and the information she learned from the What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child book and course.
Alejandra Perez Ricart suffered a difficult birth on March 8, 1991. Although her mother had given birth by Cesarean section four years earlier, it was decided that this baby could be born normally. The pregnancy was uneventful, but during labor the mother’s uterus could not withstand the stress and it split. When the baby was extracted vaginally twelve minutes later, Mrs. Ricart was told that the baby was dead.
Fifteen minutes following the birth, the baby cried. Incredibly, newborn Alejandra had survived. She began to have seizures and suffered a hemorrhage in the cerebellum. She was given medication, but instead of 10 milligrams she was mistakenly given 100 milligrams.
Following this serious error, Alejandra slept for ten days. Her parents were uncertain whether she was not moving due to brain injury or due to the medication. When she awoke, she could not move her right side, could not suck, and had no vision. After five or six days, the baby began to suck but was fed through a tube.
At the age of twenty days, Alejandra went home from the hospital. Her mother knew that her young baby had problems and began to look for help while the baby was given many tests. During this period the baby moved her right side.
Mrs. Ricart obtained an yet unpublished copy of What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child in Spanish. She had a friend who had gone to The Institutes and who later helped the Ricart family with patterning.
When Alejandra was three months old, her mother initiated a home program based on information learned in the book. She wished to take the video course, but could not due to the baby’s young age.
However, a year later Mrs. Ricart was able to take the course. During that week she learned how to evaluate her daughter. She discovered that her daughter’s midbrain levels were all perfect but that there were some functional ratings at Level IV. Her mobility was the lowest; physicians had diagnosed Alejandra as a spastic athetoid.
From this point onward, Mrs. Ricart began to work nonstop at giving her daughter the best program possible. Although she wished to add masking, Alejandra’s neurologist would not approve that program for the young girl.
For the next few years Alejandra’s program was designed and carried out entirely by her parents, based on information from the book and the course. In May 1997, when Alejandra was six years old, she was running a kilometer a day and two kilometers twice a week, and she was swimming three times a week. She had passed the exam to attend the German School in Mexico City, where she did very well.
In May 1997, Mrs. Ricart told The Institutes staff visiting Mexico City that Alejandra can read anything and can write and understand perfectly. She notes that Alejandra also has a great memory.
Well aware of the power of The Institutes programs, Mrs. Ricart has sent many families to the course. Even Alejandra’s neurologist has begun to believe in the program.
Despite her daughter’s success, Mrs. Ricart plans to continue the program until she is sure that all the little details of Alejandra’s neurological health have been corrected. When she is perfectly well—and probably better—the Ricarts will know that together they have written a completely different ending to young Alejandra’s life.
