"Their last resort was to lock him away." Partners In Health.org from Boston, Massachusetts, United States for Friday, 27 May 2016For six years, Rosemberg Lopez was locked away in a backyard shack. A small window provided his only glimpse of light—his only contact with the outside world.
Hallucinations and paranoia menaced him, sparking violent fits. The shack, built of mud and bricks, was his family's last resort to keep him safe.
In the rural town of Reforma, Mexico, he went unmentioned—and was simply considered dead.
But today, thanks to your support, Rosemberg is healthy. His symptoms are under control. He lives at home, with his family. And the shack in his parents' yard—where he passed six years alone—stands empty.
Please, give today, and send more lifesaving mental health care to people like Rosemberg, who struggle alone every day.
It was PIH physician Enrique Valdespino who recognized Rosemberg's symptoms as the tell-tale signs of untreated schizophrenia.
When a group of PIH staffers visited the Lopez home, they found a man with unkempt hair stretching down his back. A shaggy beard reached below his waist. Every rib jutted from his emaciated body.
They coaxed Lopez from his prison, into a car bound for the nearest psychiatric hospital. In four months' time, he'd return home a changed man, his violent fits a distant nightmare.
Rosemberg's story is an exception in Mexico. In poor, remote towns like Reforma, health care is hard to come by, and mental health care is even more scarce. Schizophrenia goes untreated. And far too often, families chain those who suffer—fearing they will hurt themselves or others.
Help reverse this devastating injustice today. Send health care where it's most needed with a gift of $5 or more.
http://act.pih.org/mental-health-chiapas
Thank you so much for your partnership in this mission.
Partners In Health
Partners In Health
888 Commonwealth Avenue, 3rd Floor
Boston, Massachusetts 02215, United States
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