In the November edition, an article was published titled “Garza Girl Who Lost Leg Begins the Receive Donations.” This article mentioned that Rosa Vallejos, the mother of Melany Sequeira Vallejos, refuted a previous comment by Dr. Juanita Gomez of the Nosara EBAIS clinic, who had told The Voice that she detected cancer in the 10-year-old girl (see “The Real Mission of the Nosara EBAIS” published in the September/October edition). Vallejos said that Dr. Gomez told her the pain was growing pains and did not tell her that the girl had cancer.
Dr. Gomez clarified to The Voice that Melany was first attended at the clinic on March 6 after the girl fell at school and hit her knee. Gomez gave her pain medication and sent her to Nicoya for an x-ray, which took place on March 24. Later, the patient was seen on April 2 by a colleague since Dr. Gomez was on vacation. When she returned to the clinic on April 17, the second and last time that Dr. Gomez saw her, Gomez said that after examining the x-ray and measuring the girls legs, noting that her left leg was 2 centimeters shorter than her right leg, she gave the girl an urgent referral to the hospital in Nicoya to see a pediatrician, annotating that the girl had osteosarcoma, or bone cancer.
Likewise, Dr. Tannia Tánchez Avila, regional director of the clinics, verified that the referral written by Dr. Gomez was marked urgent and included the diagnosis of osteosarcoma. Gomez is only able to refer patients to the hospital in Nicoya, at which point the case is attended by other medical professionals.
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