A wheelchair-bound 29-year-old Waterbury resident from Puerto Rico is appealing to the public in a GoFundMe campaign to help her family raise $5,000 for a van with a wheel chair ramp. Lismarie Echevarria has already had more than 18 surgeries for spina bifida and was clinically dead three times after going into cardiac arrest, which preventing her from getting a necessary surgery at birth,. She was born in Puerto Rico with the condition, which prevents her from walking or moving her legs. "I have no sensation from the waist down that is why I am in a wheel chair I have been like this since I was born," "When I was born I died three times in [sic] the operating table because doctors took me for surgery to put in my head what is called a VP shunt because the liquid from the spine was going up to my head and made my head grow and so the doctors needed to put that shunt in my head to make that liquid go back down." Right now, the Mazda her family has is too small and doesn't have a ramp to make it accessible with a wheelchair, Echevarria wants a van with a wheelchair ramp to help her get into the car to get to her doctor's appointments safely. While her dad typically lifts her into the car, she said he might need surgery and recovery time soon that would prevent him from getting her to her doctor's appointments. "A van with ramp is important for me because it enables me to get to, not only my doctors safely, but it will give me a quality of life that I can only imagine," Echevarria said on her Go Fund Me page. "I can do many things with my family if I have a van I can go to the park; I can go out to eat with them or go to the mall and have a lot of fun with them
waterbury , CT
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