Page 82 - Senior Link Magazine Summer 2026 - Online Magazine
P. 82
Inspirational
INDIVIDUAL
In Her
Own
Words
Elizabeth Prieto
was born in March 1982—a very any hope of me waking up from the my mom, my speech therapist,
happy child, dynamic and full coma. and my doctor, I pronounced the
I of energy. I could not wait to word “Mom.” After six months of
go to school with my brother and A doctor from the Middle East—Dr. hospitalization, I returned home.
sister and the other kids of our Kulusi was her name—gathered all I continued going to therapy for
neighborhood. of the medical staff and told them another year—five days a week.
they would work with me because
Only six weeks after starting she believed there was hope for At the end of that year, I left
kindergarten, when coming home me. She also ordered an end to all the wheelchair in front of my
from school, laughing, talking, of the strong medicines because therapist, and they cried out, “It’s a
and enjoying every minute, as we they would make the brain damage MIRACLE!” I took two small steps
crossed the street, I was left behind. worse. and fell. I did that, not because I
All of a sudden, I was run over by a could, but because I was very bold.
car, leaving me unconscious. I was still connected to a respiratory During the following months, I
machine and tube-fed. My mom worked very hard, so I could go to
My parents came to pick us up from stayed with me the whole six school.
school as they always did, but that months that I was hospitalized. She
day, we’d decided to walk home always prayed and talked to me as My parents registered me in a
because my parents were late—only if I would be listening. She told me Christian school because it was
to face tragedy when they arrived. that the next week in Rehab, she small, thinking that would be easier
noticed for a second that I focused for me, but that was not the case. I
Racing to the hospital, they found my gaze. From there, I began to got frustrated with myself because
me in bad shape. I had a closed head wake up, little by little. everything was so hard for me, my
injury; three parts of my brain were balance was poor, and I would fall
bleeding, and I had a broken leg and My brother and sister were six and easily.
much more. eight years old. They helped me
so much. My sister taught me how My mom wanted to send me to
Every day following that for my to communicate with them, since public school for special education,
family was so dark. Doctors did I could not speak. All of my body, but I was very determined not to go,
not give any hope—they just kept including my mouth, was paralyzed because I did not accept my reality.
saying that the brain damage was and rigid.
so severe. After two months in ICU, I did part of my high school in that
the Kansas City Children’s Hospital After four months of intensive Christian school. I had a very nice
sent me to rehabilitation without therapy, to the joyful surprise of teacher named Mr. Hyde. He would
82 Lubbock Senior Link
