It's Never To Late to Learn!
Wherever we go and share about our medical work in North Korea, the story of Blessing spreads across the globe. At the age of five, Blessing instigated treatment for children with cerebral palsy for the entire nation of North Korea. Blessing, who had spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, was our first patient with developmental disabilities. Having come from the Northeast Region of the DPRK, she followed Stephen and I to the capital city of Pyongyang where we relocated to the Pyongyang Medical School Hospital. There she began receiving rehabilitation therapy.
As other mothers began to see a child with severe developmental disabilities being treated in the Pyongyang Medical School Hospital, they started calling their friends and family back home exclaiming, “A child like yours is being treated in the hospital. Quick! Come bring your child for treatment in Pyongyang.” It was not long before mothers and their children started lining up for treatment outside our small therapy room in the children’s ward of the hospital.
Blessing’s story is familiar, but there are actually many other children’s stories that have yet to be told. One such child is whom I will refer to as Eunice. Eunice came to our hospital about two years after our treatment program began. She came from the Southwest Region of the DPRK and traveled to Pyongyang just to see the resident foreign doctor. In fact, most of our patients in the hospital were not Pyongyang residents. With hypotonic cerebral palsy, at the age of twelve, Eunice had never walked. She could sit up-right on the floor, but she did not have the muscle tone or strength in her legs to stand.
Stephen and Eunice in the Treatment Room in Pyongyang
Eunice had also never been to school. She should have been finishing primary school, but she had never had the opportunity to learn how to read or write.
As I saw pediatric patients receiving physical and occupational therapy in the hospital, I began advocating for our patients’ educational needs. Many of the children, like Eunice, had never been taught. Their physical disabilities prevented them from receiving a public education, and with both parents typically working full-time in the DPRK, no one around them had the time to invest in their education at home. With training in educational therapy, I started providing supplemental lessons in English. Slowly but surely, I also began teaching our pediatric patients how to read and write in their own language.
Eunice was such a delight to have as both a patient and a student. She had a sweet disposition and was always smiling. Despite the hard work required to learn how to stand on her own two feet, after several months of therapy, she learned how to fire the muscle fibers in her legs to not only stand but to also maintain balance in that position. Towards the end of her therapy in the hospital, Eunice was even walking with the aid of a gait trainer.
Eunice Learning How to Stand in the Pyongyang Medical School Hospital
She also made huge strides academically. Already twelve years old, Eunice quickly learned the Korean alphabet. With the help of her therapists, she began reading and writing simple words in Korean as well as memorizing her addition and subtraction facts. At the time Eunice was finally discharged and returned to her home province, she was writing simple compositions and learning how to express herself through the written word.
Eunice Walking with a Rifton Gait Training in the Hospital
Eunice’s story is a prime example of how it is never too late to learn. Even at the age of twelve, as a child who had never been capable of simple mobility, she proved to the world that with some hard work and determination, children with cerebral palsy have unlimited potential. She had never received a formal education, yet Eunice was capable of learning how to read and write.
It is not just North Korea that has misconceptions about children with developmental disabilities. World-wide popular society misunderstands the potential that children with cerebral palsy have. Our brains have an amazing capacity to recover as this particular organ has the ability to build new neurological connections that help regain any function that may have been lost due to injury or damage. Eunice is a perfect example of this. With just the right opportunity and a little bit of encouragement, she far surpassed all social expectations.
Unfortunately, as North Korea’s borders are closed due to COVID-19, we do not know how Eunice is doing today. But I am sure that she has continued to progress even further with the fundamental skills she acquired through therapy. And I am eagerly awaiting our return to Pyongyang to continue our treatment for children with various developmental disabilities. I’m sure that I will once again be blown away by children like Eunice who have the tenacity to overcome all odds.