In the heartwarming story below, you will meet Melina Reis, a 31-year-old amputee.
When she was a teenager, she was involved in a tragic accident. She was crushed by two oncoming cars while crossing a junction near her home in Brazil.
The accident left most of her left leg lifeless. Just two years ago, doctors amputated the lower part of her leg. Her greatest fear of all, however, was that she would never, ever be able to dance again.
With the help of one doctor who took a daring chance, and the miracles of science, an amazing prosthesis was constructed for her.
Today, she is using this special "en pointe" prosthetic foot to go on her tiptoes.
Now, she is able to live and breathe like a ballerina once more — once again, she is able to dance, despite her disability.
Scroll further to read Melina's stirring story, and let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
[H/T: The Independent]
Back in 2002, Melina Reis, 31, an amateur ballerina from Brazil, suffered a horrendous accident.
She was crossing a junction near her home in Sao Paulo, when she was crushed between two oncoming cars. She was barely 18 years old.
After the accident, Melina spent over four months in the hospital, and underwent 30 surgeries to try and salvage her left leg.
In 2014, 12 years after the incident, doctors decided to amputate the part of her leg below her knee.
It was for the best, but Melina feared that she wouldn’t be able to enjoy her greatest passion in life ever again.
She wanted more than anything to resume dancing ballet.
As luck would have it, she found Dr. Jose André Carvalho, the director of the Campinas Institute of Prosthesis and Orthosis.
Dr. Carvalho managed to design an ingenious “en pointe” foot prosthesis made of carbon fiber and gypsum.
“The challenge was to get Melina to balance on the prosthesis that has only one centimeter square area of support,” he told the Independent.
He applied the complex concepts of biomechanics and mathematics to construct the prosthesis, but above all, he wised to “capture the posture and beauty of the ballerina while carrying her weight.”
The base of the prosthetic foot is made from the back of the ankle, and serves as the support for the pylon rod that would be mounted onto Melina’s knee.
They made a plaster cast of her right foot, and the 551-pound mold took a total of four weeks to make.
But Melina didn’t mind one bit that the mold was bulky.
For the first time in 13 years, she was not only able to dance again — she was able to go back to balancing on tiptoe, or what they call, go “en pointe.”
“It has always been my dream to go back to using pointe shoes,” said Melina, ecstatic. “To be able to dance again is an inexplicable feeling of joy and deep satisfaction.”
Melina went back to practicing at the barre earlier this month — but hopes to dance once again before an audience in two years’ time.
No doubt, she will be training hard for the next couple of weeks, and use the time to test out just how strong the new prosthesis is.
“This has given me a quality of life that was beyond my expectations,” she said.
Melina, a multimedia designer and founder of an institute for inclusive arts, could never have foreseen the possibility of such an astounding piece of prosthesis.
In fact, she describes it as “near perfect.”
According to her, Dr. Carvalho agreed to create the prosthesis even though there had been absolutely nothing like it that was done before.
As expected, Melina still has quite a long road ahead of her until she can feel totally normal again with the new foot.
“We are in the process of stabilizing my knee,” she said, saying that it does hurt as she slowly tries to get used to it.
Overall, however, the miracle prosthesis has enabled her to feel free and alive again — and has allowed her to continue pursuing her greatest passion of all: dancing.
Please SHARE if you admire Melina for her courage, strength, and optimism!
