Emil Mendez is the embodiment of the mantra: "Don't let your limits define you." The BDF soldier has learned to live with a disability and excel despite being paralysed as the result of a totally random life changing event that would have sapped all hope from most of us. But, quite literally, this Lance Corporal has soldiered on.
Jomarie Lanza visited him at the BDF hospital today where he wasn't a patient but one of the medical staff:
Looking at Lance Corporal Emil Mendez, a medic and orthopaedist in the Belize Defense force you wouldn't know that he's paralysed from the waist down. But he is and he attends to his patients in a wheelchair. Mendez has learned to live with the consequence of a spinal injury that changed his life forever.
Lance Corporal Emil Mendez, BDF Medic
"So after doing two courses in this medical field my boss recommended that I go to Guyana. It was an orthopaedic technician course, a one year course in Guyana so I was recommended to go and I went to Guyana for that. I was there for three months in the country when unfortunately, I went out one night to buy food and upon going back to the base. And this happened right in front of the military base in Guyana, when an individual approached me and I was the victim of an armed robbery. That's when this individual shot me four times. The third bullet hit my spinal cord and it left me paralyzed. At that point I was laying down on the ground and immediately knew that I was paralyzed. As a medical technician, orthopaedic technician, I knew my symptoms and I knew I was in that condition of being paralyzed."
"This incident happened on the 22nd of December 2014. The general of the GDF approached me and visited me in the hospital and proposed to fly me back to my country. I honestly didn't want to come back in that condition. I never wanted my parents to see me in that condition so I put to my mind that I wanted to heal, I wanted to get better and most of all I didn't want to leave my studies halfway there. So what I did was I only took exactly one month off despite that I did multiple surgeries. I said that I would only take one month off and then I will go back to school and I am grateful for the medics in Guyana because they were the ones that took me to the hospital everyday and brought me back to the base. They were taking care of me every single day until I finished my course. So I did my complete one year course and when I finished I came back."
That courage and determination is still visible today when this soldier of 8 years he independently moves around the camp carrying out his duties, through all the facilities which are wheelchair accessible.
Despite his injury - Mendez went on to complete his associates degree and become the first disabled person to compete in the La Ruta Maya Challenge in 2017. There are times that he does face particular challenges in the workplace but he has learned that there is no job that is too big or too difficult for him to successfully treat with the assistance of his colleagues
Lance Corporal Emil Mendez, BDF Medic
"As an orthopaedic technician yes I kind of have slight challenges because I specialize in doing casts and I can do casts on all parts of the body and there are some parts of the body that require more strength but I can still do it with the assistance of my peers. So often I would tell them okay hold this patient in this position and I would be doing the wrapping. So with assistance I can do the job."
One of the biggest challenges Mendez has not been able to adapt to is the lack of wheelchair accessibility on Belize's public transport:
Lance Corporal Emil Mendez, BDF Medic
"Unfortunately, the bus companies here in Belize the bus that we have are somewhat old fashioned and for a disabled person especially in a wheelchair it's a bit hard to get on the bus it's hard. So I wish that they had more like new buses coming into the country and that they buses are wheelchair accessible so like that I can go to the bus terminal and just go on the bus by myself."
And that hope - even for the busted bus system is an expression of the unbreakable optimism and forward looking nature that Mendez engenders.
Mendez is studying Computer Science, so that he can digitize patient data in the BHIS system at Price Barracks.
