DON’T GIVE UP

by Helky Castro

My name is Helky Castro, I am from El Salvador. Eight years ago my life changed. I was in a coma for two months, I was pregnant, and the medical team decided I was to stay in the hospital to prevent miscarriage. After one month my baby died. This news made me too sad, I started with complications, I felt sick with fever, I felt cold, I felt chills and shivering. I had infection in my body. The doctors induced vaginal delivery; they administered epidural and in the instant I lost consciousness, I had many complications. My kidneys stopped functioning, I had fever, high blood pressure and blood transfusion but nothing worked. After a week, I had three hearts attacks on the same day. In the coma, days passed, and my body was inflamed for kidney damage. My extremities started turning purple and then later black. I had septic shock. I depended entirely on machines to keep my organs functioning. The only option the doctors gave my family was:

1. Keeping me alive but without my limbs
2. Allow my passing (death) by keeping my limbs intact

My family decided perform the amputations to save my life and asked God for his mercy, will, grace and goodnesses to reach me. My chances of survival were only 30 per cent. My family, friends and church community prayed to God and he answer the prayers. All witnessed the miracle.

I was in the hospital for 6 months for my recovery. I woke up after two months without my extremities. It was very hard to me to find my self in that situation because I needed every help to come back to my normal life. Medical team said I was going to walk in a year, but three months later I
returned home and started driving and walking.

I am grateful to God for another opportunity to be alive. I have 23 surgeries, 4 amputations. I can walk, I can cook, I can drive, I can shower, I can go to the store alone. I wrote my book to inspire many people to believe God is real and mercy is great.

I am learning English to improve my skills, speak and read English help to comunicate and socialize. Speaking English can open many doors to keep growing and help me share my story with people who need motivation and inspiration to keep going and don’t give up.

Author’s Note: My book barcode is https://a.co/d/dn9N0mr .