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Thank you.
Thank you.
My passion for the Amazon started because of this little animal here.
The Amazon River dolphin or boto-cor-de-rosa (Pink River Dolphin).
The legend says that river dolphins seduce women.
I believe that this legend has a little bit of truth in it.
I moved here in 2009, in April, 2009.
I came from the big city to the heart of the Amazon.
Right on that white spot At the fork in the river.
This was the house in which I lived for nine months.
It was a floating house, like this auditorium, but on a smaller scale, of course.
I was living my dream.
This was the view from my bedroom.
Every morning I woke up to this view.
And the only traffic I had to face
was waiting for a flock of loons crossing in front of the boat.
When I was in the Amazon, I learned how to use a boat,
I couldn’t drive a car in São Paulo.
I learned to clean fish, use rowboats, and hold the oars properly.
I learned to sleep in a hammock without getting a backache.
I learned how to take pictures.
I learned to climb a tree.
So I was living the dream of my life.
I was living everything I wanted to live.
However, life brings obstacles.
It was when I was cleaning fish, cooking lunch,
I was cleaning the fish out on the deck of my house,
When an alligator attacked me.
I was outside the house, the alligator came from behind me,
I was sitting on the floor, cleaning it,
and the alligator came from behind jumped more than a meter,
Closing his mouth around my leg and dragging me underwater.
I guess, three meters
I’m not really good at distances, but I think it was around three meters.
Then, it started to spin me.
I don’t know if you have ever seen an alligator attacking its prey
but they seize it and start spinning and spinning and spinning,
until the part of the prey they want comes off.
That’s what the alligator did to me, I remember being spun and spun,
It was as if I were inside a blender.
Then, I thought:
"What would be the most sensitive part of the alligator?"
I remember putting my hand like this, behind,
and feeling two holes on top of the animal’s head.
And, I thought, they were probably the eyes or the nostrils, beats me.
But I remember putting my fingers like this, very hard,
and pressing so hard, so hard that I even broke my nail.
That was when the alligator let me go.
I swam back to the water surface and managed to breathe.
After that, I tried to get up to my house to the same place it had grabbed me from.
However, I had only one leg,
I realized I had already lost one leg,
and I didn’t have the strength to lift my body.
So, I swam to the front part of the house,
where there is a ramp for docking boats,
and I went up it to get in.
I stayed on this ramp for a while, crying for help,
because I had seen a fisherman pass by in the morning,
and I figured he’d still be around.
But, after some time lying there, I thought:
"Gosh", the water was all red with blood,
and there was a big chance of attracting more alligators
I wanted to get away from the water as quickly as possible.
That was when I also remembered that we keep a radio inside the house,
which is connected to the whole reserve where I was living.
This was the hardest part, I think,
climbing up the ramp on one leg only,
I would jump, and roll and drag myself,
because when you’re on one leg only,
you lose balance completely.
But I managed to get into the house, got the radio and called for help,
After ten minutes or so,
some tour guides from a nearby inn arrived.
They tied a tourniquet to my leg and all
But ten minutes had already passed
I don’t know if you know but we have a very thick artery going through here,
called the femoral artery,
and it is said that, If you take a shot in this artery,
you die in a matter of minutes, in four, five minutes, you’re dead.
By a miracle, I was alive and conscious.
Doctors say that what might have happened when the alligator was attacking me,
was that it twisted my leg and ended up twisting the femoral artery as well.
Other doctors say that when an artery as thick as that one is severed,
the artery contracts and creates a natural tourniquet
Anyway, I was placed on a boat,
One of those small ones,
and I was taken to the hospital.
on the way, they put me on a larger and faster boat.
Then I started to feel a lot of pain,
because before then, I hadn’t felt a thing,
Thank God for adrenalin.
I was hospitalized in Tefé, a city which is 600Km from Manaus.
I stayed there for 10 days, and underwent emergency surgery.
After I was stabilized, I was transferred to São Paulo by plane.
I stayed at the hospital for five more days.
After six months of recovery, and intense physical therapy every day,
I still felt a whole lot of pain
and had to undergo another surgery, a correction surgery,
to take away the pain I felt.
For me, this was the hardest part,
harder than fighting with the alligator,
more difficult than bearing the pain, was to start over.
I had been in that gigantic Amazon, independent, living my dream
all of a sudden,
I wound up confined in a room in São Paulo,
in a hospital, counting on everyone else to do everything for me.
This part was very difficult for me.
But, that’s why I am here.
I am here to tell you not only about the attack,
which is an incredible story,
I am here to also tell you about how I overcame this problem
I am still overcoming it.
I must confess, having our lives changed in this way, so suddenly, so quickly,
is not an easy thing to deal with.
I was not able to do things I used to do before,
like climbing the stairs, for instance, without help,
It’s pretty hard.
and to be honest, I still get sad and upset sometimes
However, I am not here for you to feel sorry for me,
I think that, often, people don’t really know how to act
with a physically or mentally challenged person
I don’t want you to feel sorry for me.
Once I was at the gym, and a woman came up to me and said
I was using my crutches.
The woman approached me and said:
"Oh, poor thing, what happened? Did you twist your ankle?"
I stood up and said:
"No, no, it’s because I am an amputee and I am still learning how to walk”.
She said: "Oh! What a pity! So young! Poor thing! It has ruined your future, hasn’t it?"
I said: "Look, ma’am, if you’ll excuse me, but I’m doing very well just as I am,
And I am very excited about my future.
How about you? How are you doing?"
But the children...
Now, let me tell you this.
Children, I love them, because they are really spontaneous.
I was in Rio de Janeiro,
wearing shorts in a crafts market.
when a boy came up and said:
"How cool is that! You have a robot leg!”
Then he ran to his friends to share the news with them and show them.
So, I think this is it,
It not a leg that defines who you are,
it’s not the problems you face today that make you who you are.
It’s how you deal with these problems.
Today, literally, each step for me is an accomplishment.
Getting up and going to the toilet used to be a challenge.
Later, walking with the aid of crutches was another challenge.
Then, walking with a prosthetic leg became the challenge for me.
Nonetheless, overcoming these hurdles is what keeps me motivated.
After the attack, I learned how to drive a car,
I learned how to swim with one leg only.
There is something really cool I want to show you.
I bring a portable table wherever I go.
And one of my biggest wishes,
Ever since I was in the hospital in Tefé,
was to go back to the Amazon, which was my great passion.
I remember speaking with my parents:
"Look, I still want to go back".
Everybody thought I was crazy.
Yet, I can tell you, firsthand now, that
the day after tomorrow, after TED
I will be heading back to the reserve, and to my project with the river dolphins,
I will be going back to my dream.
Just to finish, as I read in a blog once,
Thank you.