In the Spotlight Central Florida Attorney Learned to Accept and Appreciate His Disability By Haley Brittingham Juan Carlos Barreno, P.A. Juan Carlos Barreno grew up in Maracaibo, Venezuela being one of twelve siblings who were all extremely active in various types of sports. During the summer of 1979, Juan at the age of 18 was getting ready to start his career as a college athlete and also play basketball for the state of Zulia. He was on top of the world. Until one day just one month before his first semester of college he was involved in a terrible car accident leaving him with five open fractures on his right leg and severe muscle damage. “The doctors started operating and did all they could to save my leg” Juan stated, but it still was not enough. Juan had to postpone his first semester of college and subsequently lost his chance to play on the university and state basketball teams. During the second semester of that year, he was able to begin taking classes by going back and forth from the hospital and his school. Meanwhile, he knew it was important to begin understanding what it means to live with a disability. Juan had to learn how to function with his five open fractures and a bone infection “No matter what minority categories you may fall in, you can reach whatever you want as long as you continue to that needed immense care. He knew that he could not live his life like that; hospitals, painful cleaning of open wounds, and no movement of his right leg. He recalls visiting a center where basketball players in wheelchairs were playing a game and feeling like they were better than him in a way because they were able to participate and enjoy their life even though they did not have use of their lower bodies. He wanted to experience that joy as well and quickly began to realize that although he was not able to do the same things he once did he was appreciative to have his life. In July of 1980, his physician in Venezuela told him “there is nothing else I can do, you need to go to Houston, Texas where there are good orthopedics who can give you another option.” No time was wasted in hopes of finding an alternative and Juan quickly made his way to Houston. Juan shared that he “had already come to terms with what the alternative may be, amputation.” Upon meeting with the new doctors, they gave him two options: 1) stay in an isolated room for up to five years to treat the worsening bone infection with no guarantee of use of his leg afterwards or 2) amputate his leg and begin to move on with his life. He chose the latter and had the amputation procedure two days later. Juan was ready to live his life. He was grateful that he had a life to live. He spent a few months in Houston and in October of 1980, he went back to the University of Zulia with his prosthetic leg. He was determined to not let his initial injury or his new prosthetic leg slow him down. Juan realized, “I had to change my perspective on life. Before then, I was the best student in my class, the captain of my teams, and in some ways that made me cocky, I had to change when I 24 AmeriDisability Jul/Aug 2017 reach for it.”
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