Hope walks

Jamie Parsell

When Lonnie and Sue Shinn visited Costa Rica more than three years ago, they saw a 12-year-old boy walking on his knees. Having lost his legs to a meningitis staphylococcal infection as a young child, Romario Castro had been walking on his knees for years. When he played basketball, his knees would bleed until his mother would beg him to stop. The image stayed with Shinn and wife, who were on a mission trip at the time.

Lonnie, who owns a tree trimming business in Mercer County, asked someone to take the child’s picture and began asking questions about Romario’s medical condition. But first, Lonnie began to pray.

“I did a lot of crying and praying,” he said. “We just wanted to help.”

The Princeton residents returned home with one question: How much would it cost to buy the boy from Costa Rica a pair of artificial legs? After realizing new legs could cost anywhere from $25,000 to $30,000, the Shinns began reaching out to local churches and members of the community. Together they created the Romario Hope Fund.

Romario, who lives in Costa de Pajaros, has three brothers and one sister. He was attending a missionary camp when the Shinns saw him playing basketball on his knees.

“Their living conditions are very primitive,” Sue said. “The mother cooks over an open fire outside.”

When Romario developed the meningitis staph infection, doctors were not sure they could save his life. The infection turned his skin black. According to Sue, doctors removed his legs, half of his ear, some of his fingertips and even pieces of skin from his stomach, back and thighs.

The Shinns raised the money — the Daily Telegraph wrote a story about the effort — but the couple spent two years trying to persuade the U.S. Embassy to allow Romario into the U.S. for the procedure. Nothing seemed to work for the couple, until August of this year. A former pastor, Ben Gentile, who had moved from the area, called the Shinns to get an update on the project.

“I told him we were up against a brick wall,” Sue said.

Without bringing Romario to the U.S., the Shinns had no way to complete their project. However, the former pastor told the couple about two members of Temple Baptist Church who wanted to travel on a mission trip. The two men, Shannon and Jason Kiser, worked for Precision Orthopedic Technology in Flatwoods, Ky., as an orthotist and a prosthetist. An orthotists makes custom braces, while a prosthetist makes artificial limbs. Shannon Kiser, his brother Jason, six members of Temple Baptist and another individual from Precision Orthopedic traveled to Costa Rica with the Shinns on Sept. 12. They performed the procedure at a local Bible college in Palpares, Costa Rica. The college is ran by missionaries Danny and Jonathan White.

“We knew it would be a challenge once we saw the shape of the limbs,” Shannon said. “We also knew it would be a challenge to provide the cushioning.”

Because Romario had been walking on his knees, they were worried about complications such as knee contractions. It took two days to fit Romario with his new legs. On Monday, they cast the legs and on Tuesday, the two men made a mold, checking the sockets for fit. By Tuesday evening, they fabricated the limbs using carbon fiber and resin.

“By Sept. 17, Romario had high-tech legs. He went from 4 feet 11 inches to 5 feet 7 inches. Before, he didn’t quite come up to my shoulder,” Sue said.

After receiving the artificial limbs, the 15-year-old boy did not need any rehab.

“We basically got them on and he walked. We maximized the comfort to give him a natural gait,” Shannon said. “He took off from there.”

The moment when Romario first stood up brought tears of joy to Sue’s eyes.

“It was almost like an impossible dream coming true. I asked him where the pain was and he said there was no pain. I squealed and disrupted the classes. It was like somebody handed me the jackpot. There was a lot of tears — tears of excitement and tears of relief that it had finally happened,” Sue said.

Her husband focused on the boy’s unique sense of humor. When Lonnie asked Romario how the legs felt, he said his ankle itched.

“A kid with that kind of spirit and with that kind of drive, we couldn’t help but help him,” Lonnie said.

After a week at the college, Romario returned home to his family, but Sue became confused when she saw the boy still walking on his knees at school.

“He wouldn’t wear them to school because he didn’t have long pants. I bought him his first pair of pants. Where they live is so very poor, it breaks your heart. Now, he wears his legs everyday,” Sue said.

In an e-mail to the Shinns — the couple bought Romario a computer — he wrote, “I run. I run. I am so happy.” Sue said he is very active now; he likes to ride his bike and play soccer. He also calls the Shinns his American mother and father.

“He calls us his American parents,” she said.

The Kisers did not take any payment for their services in Costa Rica; instead, the money raised over the past three years will go to Romario’s education. Right now, he is in the sixth grade, but the Shinns have made arrangements for Romario to continue his education in Palpares. He will live at the Bible college, where he stands a chance of receiving a better high school education.

“He is a good student and makes good grades,” Sue said.

Her husband said they will continue to raise money to pay for Romario’s college education. His wife is hoping there will be enough for the boy to achieve his dream of working in the medical field, where he can help others with the same types of disabilities.

“He will have to work for it,” she said. “He had three strikes against him to begin with. We want to level the playing field.”

The Kisers recently sent more supplies to Romario. Shannon said he is riding his bike so much that he is wearing a hole in one of his liners. A gel liner goes over the limb and holds the prothestic on the knee. It is all held on by suction, explained Kiser. The team of medical professionals will provide adjustments until Romario is an adult. Because of Romario, the Kentucky resident plans to travel to Guatemala in January, where he will assist more than 23 children with disabilities like Romario’s.

“The need exists,” he said.

— Contact Jamie Parsell at jparsell@bdtonline.com

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