Leaping at a second chance

For Cesar Jaramillo, a Dubai-based professional dance instructor, all it took was a blink of an eye to lose everything ... well almost.

Says Jaramillo, "If anyone asks me what the best moments of my life have been, I would say it is being fortunate enough to be born and having lived in Columbia, my homeland. It's a beautiful place filled with beautiful people.

"Behind the negative news on TV about Columbia, there lies a vibrant country with passionate people. A country where family means everything, and where music and dancing is a way of life.

And in my family - and I come from a typical Columbian family - dancing was a passion.

"I started dancing at a very young age, and God bless my parents for discovering and encouraging my talent and that of my siblings. My home was always filled with music, the wonderful aromas of Mama's cooking, laughter and always, always, of course the joy of dancing.

"So by the age of 17, I was a professional dancer as well as a dance instructor. And that was the year, 14 years ago in 1993, that life taught me how fleeting things could be, and how dearly we should hold on to the gifts we have been given.

"It was spring in Columbia. My (older) brother Jaime Andre and I were returning from a football match between Columbia and Romania. We were on a motorbike, with me driving and Jaime Andre on the pillion.

"A few minutes after we started off from the stadium, at a corner, my life changed. It was sudden and it was fast. Our bike collided with an oncoming car and my last memories were of the two of us careening straight into the car.

"As soon as we hit the car, I think I fell unconscious because my next memory was of excruciating pain in my right leg. When I opened my eyes, I could make out a lot of people crowding around me, shouting and some women crying in horror.

"Suddenly, people were holding me up by my arms, some by my legs, and that's when I started to scream in pain and terror. I realised I had injured my leg badly. Through my pain I saw my brother still unconscious and splattered in blood.

"Subsequently, he and I were lifted into a public bus and the horrifying thought of whether he was alive was like a non-stop scream that went off in my mind.

"The bus ride (painful and jerky), entering the Las Vegas Hospital, my family rushing in ... these remain hazy but permanent memories.

"Soon the doctor came and the words he uttered next remain to this day the most haunting words of my life: 'His (right) leg has to be amputated,' he declared, 'there's no saving it. It's beyond repair.'

"Those words sounded like a death knell. My first thought was not that I would lose a leg but that I would never be able to dance again. Dancing was not just my profession, it was my passion, my life."

Jaramillo and his father spent the next one hour pleading with the doctor to consider surgery. Finally, the doctor consented.

An extensive surgery involving the insertion of metal plates would be carried out but if Jaramillo was not able to not move his toes three days post-surgery, the leg would then have to be amputated. That was final.

"Meanwhile, my brother was recovering from a mended ankle and 16 stitches on his face."

"As soon as I regained consciousness after the surgery, the first thing I tried was to move my toes.

"I failed. But my family was very encouraging. As I tried, and cried, and felt no movement whatsoever, they would say, 'Perhaps you'll be able to do it tomorrow, tonight, the next hour ..."

However, on the third day, with about half an hour to go before the doctor's visit, Jaramillo's toes showed no signs of movement.

"The doctor was due at 8am and I was still trying," recalls Jaramillo. "I was mentally and physically exhausted. I had believed so much that I would be able to move my toes in three days that I hadn't even had the time to imagine living a life without a leg.

"Finally, a few minutes before the doctor was to arrive, I gave it one last go. I felt some sensation along my toes. For a second, I felt I was imagining it, just like I had been during the past three days. But when I looked down, I saw my toes move, imperceptibly but they moved!

"It was amazing!"

The next few months, as Jaramillo re-learnt to walk, and then eventually to dance, it required all his courage, patience and faith to keep going.

"Those were trying months, but I kept telling myself that if I could get my toes to move, to keep my leg, I could also be the dancer I was. I think that it was that spirit - of wanting to be what I wanted to be - that helped me through the next few weeks. In three months, I was back on the dance floor.

"Dancing also proved to be a good form of physiotherapy. Once I could move, next I tried jumping on my injured leg. And every time I did, I would fall down in pain and as time went on, in frustration.

"But that was my goal - to be able to jump freely on my injured leg. Finally, one day, eight months after my brush with destiny, I jumped high into the air and landed on my right leg, firmly, gracefully.

"Even after 14 years, the memories of that accident act as a spur.

"Today, I am married with two beautiful sons, and every time there is a challenge - big or small - I seek comfort and courage in the thought that God gave me another chance.

"Chances are so few and far between in life, and I guess that sometimes you have to almost lose something to realise just how fortunate you are and how beautiful the world is.

"I was given a second chance to enjoy the rhythm of this world. I am eternally grateful for that."

After his complete recovery, which took almost a year, Jaramillo went on to compete in numerous national and international dance competitions, bagging many awards.

At the age of 18, just after a year of the accident, he established his own dance school in Columbia which he ran until he moved to Dubai seven years ago.

Today, Jaramillo conducts lessons in a variety of dance forms and is one of the most sought-after performers in Dubai.