Jenny’s story

Jenny C. experienced a year of pain and difficulty walking after she hurt her leg in an accident playing with her kids. She thought it was a minor issue at first, and with no health insurance she continued suffering through it.

“It was hard for me and my family,” Jenny said. “I also couldn’t do my job as a salsa dancing instructor. I couldn’t dance.”

The pain became almost unbearable. Jenny finally went to the Essential Health Clinic. When doctors there saw her leg, they decided Jenny needed surgery.

“It turned out I was walking for a year with only twenty-five percent of my Achilles tendon there,” Jenny said. Parts of her foot were severed because of walking around for so long without care.

What happened next “was very fast”, according to Jenny. Following a four-week wait for an available surgeon, she underwent a surgery with Dr. Eliot’s team at Tuality Hospital.

“They were angels,” Jenny said. The surgery took almost three times as long as planned, but was successful. Jenny was on bed rest for a month, then walked around in a cast and with crutches.

Jenny said, “It was an amazing experience. I don’t have words to express how much I appreciate what [Project Access NOW] did for me. Thanks to them I can walk.”

Jenny is now also back at work, able to dance again.

(January 2011)