It was the year 2005 and Gabriel Gil, 24 years old, felt that he had touched the sky with his hands. Many of his dreams were on track. He had chances to play for a soccer club, the sport he embraced as a child in his native Villa Dolores. But also, being a salsa teacher, it did not stop raining performances with his partner at weddings and on his 15th birthday. In fact, he had almost everything closed to start rehearsing a play by the comedian Fernando “Flaco” Pailos.
But a road tragedy, on a route in the province of Buenos Aires, put a stop to his plans but not to his life. When he returned from the city of Luján bound for Córdoba, where he had traveled to take care of his sister for a personal matter, the bus collided and ended up upside down. He hit a concrete post and the roof of the unit fell on the young man and cut his foot.
At the age of 41, Gabriel remembers in great detail the episode he had to face. He says that he was not bleeding and that in the first minutes after the accident he was concerned because a pair of pants that he had bought a short time ago had torn.
“When I remember the accident I feel that I was calm. I have rarely told it, but I felt the presence of God by my side, ”she confesses in an interview with The voice.
The first thing he did in the vicinity of the bus, now without his foot, was to ask a girl for a handkerchief to make a tourniquet. Then, she instructed him to trace her slipper that had the rest of her limb on it.
“I told him that if he found him, he should put him in a cold place because I thought they could save him. He still had chances to play ball, ”he recalls.
Once the police and ambulance arrived, they assisted Gabriel and transferred him to a hospital in the town of Exaltación de la Cruz. On the way, and seeing the display of sirens and noises, he realized what had happened to him.
When he arrived at the hospital, he managed to ask Jorge, the orderly, if he had lost a lot of blood. “I was desperate for my dance classes because I lived on it. I worked with my body, ”he explains.
Amputation of his leg, hospitalization and start over
Gabriel was admitted to that hospital for a week. They could not save his foot because it had been torn and, by prescription to avoid future problems, they decided to amputate part of his left leg.
With a lot of humor, he still remembers a situation that happened to him while he was being operated on. “At one point during the intervention I woke up and asked a doctor if she didn’t caress my hair,” he details. And he continues: “I fall asleep again and when I wake up, with part of my leg gone, they hold me and tell me ‘the cuddly woke up'”.
The man says that he never felt pain. Not when he cut off his foot, not when he was operated on. What he did find difficult was seeing himself in front of a mirror without his left leg.
“For five months I did not leave my house,” he explains. And he adds: “My dad used to heal me. Today it swells a bit when there are changes in weather”.
In December 2005, he was encouraged to leave his home with “long pants”. Everything was possible through the psychological assistance that she provided and that the transport company paid for.
“I spent a year with therapeutic help,” he says. Little by little, he tried to be who he had been before the accident and to do all those things that were good for him.
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In his recovery, sport played a key role. He played soccer since he was four years old and went through several clubs such as Belgrano, Talleres, Instituto and Unión San Vicente, among others. But in his stage with prostheses he turned to endless activities: canoeing, swimming, tennis and triathlon. In all of them he managed to stand out and obtain medals.
“Every day you have to overcome yourself. That was taught to me by sport. The loss of the leg was not the biggest. The look of the other was the most painful and cruel, ”she explains.
Undertaking in the midst of indifference
Perhaps Gabriel remembers the humiliating situations he had to face once he was amputated. But he doesn’t want to stay there. Even those less than happy scenarios pushed him to go for more.
Since no one wanted to employ him, and already with an established family – he is the father of Joaquín, 13 years old – he decided to start a business to earn money and contribute to his family’s economy.
“I am known for having a thousand items,” he says with a laugh. And he lists: “I sold cold cuts, I had a bakery, a clothing store. When she had nothing, she sewed thermos holders and sold them in Traslasierra. I never stayed still. Luckily my wife works and between the two of us we get ahead”.
Although he always had a “go to the front” personality. He had moments of darkness like any human being. He even had suicidal thoughts, which he was able to counter thanks to the support of his affections.
today has the barbershop and hairdresser XT in the garage of his house in the Ferreyra neighborhood and works as technical director of the adapted soccer team the teros.
“In that space I learned to share and be a leader. That there are more people like me. I no longer get down from the accident, ”he says proudly.
In launching her business, the sports psychologist Carina Cerruti played a key role. “I got to know myself a lot more and that helped me make the decision to start the barbershop because the body is getting tired,” she explains. And she adds: “In 2014 I started studying and today my livelihood is that. You put art in other people’s heads. The image communicates.
Asked about a message for other people who are amputees, the man was blunt: “Life is worth living. You have to enjoy the little things, the details”.
How to help us find Everyday Heroes and Heroines
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