Having an inoperable brain tumor is one of the most devastating medical conditions - but for one man who you'll meet tonight - it's been made doubly worse because the tumor has gotten so large that it's made him blind.
Today Alfonso Noble found him trying to come to terms with an the world as a blind man.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
In January of 2000 Santos Hernandez was diagnosed with a tumor at the base of his brain. Since then he's undergone two brain surgeries to remove it but while that served as a temporary remedy the growth has returned and now the pressure inside his head has caused the complete loss of his vision. Now Hernandez is at a crossroads with life; starting anew as a blind person.
Santos Hernandez, Eye Patient
"To me it is like I am a new baby because I have to learn how to go to the bathroom, go to help my wife, to sweep and to get my bed clean so it's like I born again. Even the way how I walk, the way how a baby starts to walk, is the way I am."
His quest to regain his usefulness and return to a normal life has led him to seek help from the Belize Council for the Visually Impaired. They've offered to equip him with the tools, which will allow him to re-integrate into a normal, active life. Joan Samuels, the deputy director of the BCVI is also a trainer and she says that blindness like Hernandez's is a beginning rather than an end.
Joan Samuels, BCVI
"Like Santos rightly said, it is the beginning to a new life. A new life with more awareness of your environment because people with sight take for the environment for granted. So Santos will read everything in his environment to help him to become fully and dependent."
A new life with a new awareness and Hernandez had to explore that today as he began his training in using his cane in downtown Belize City.
It is by no means an easy task, the endless marking of landmarks and painting memory pictures with the end of a guide stick.
Santos Hernandez,
"Before the visit, I never had no hope if I could get better. But I now have hope that I will learn and this is a new life. It is like I born again."
Joan Samuels,
"BCVI's rehab program is to make sure that persons who get blind become as independent as possible and re-integrate them back into society."
And now Hernandez is on his way even if today it only took him from Dean Street to Prince Street - a block away.
Hernandez says he's not lost his hope to regain his sight. He often travels to his home country of Honduras for follow up treatment to remove the tumor. In the meantime however he'll receive training from BCVI to cope. The training includes learning braille.