Brazilian man named Claudio Vieira de Oliveira was born with physical disabilities and has his neck folded back, but he has defied the odds to become an accountant and a public speaker.
Mr. Oliveria from Monte Santo in Brazil, despite suffering from a disease called congenital arthrogryposis a rare condition that fuses his joints together, which left him with his head upside down and facing the wrong way as well as badly deformed legs and almost no use of his arms and hands has achieve success.
Doctors told Oliveira’s mother Maria Jose to stop feeding him as a newborn as they believed he had no chance of survival. Maria Jose said: “People started saying ‘the baby is going to die’ because he could barely breathe when he was born.”Some people would say: ‘Don’t feed him, he is already dying’.
“But Claudio Vieira de Oliveira has defied the odds so much that he now has written a book about his life after reaching the age of 40 and graduated as an accountant at State University of Feira de Santana. But there’s only happiness now. Claudio is just like any other person – that’s how he was raised in this house. “We never tried to fix him and always wanted him to do the normal things everyone else does. That’s why he is so confident. He is not ashamed of walking around in the street – he sings and he dances. “Claudio mum’s added.
At eight years old, Claudio, who had previously been carried everywhere, began to walk on his knees. His family had to change the floor of the house so that he could walk around without hurting himself. Claudio’s bed, plugs and lights had to be made lower so that he could do things for himself without asking for help. Claudio Vieira de Oliveira said “Since I was a child I’ve always liked to keep myself busy and work, I don’t like to depend totally on other people.
“I do a bit of accounting, research for clients and consulting. “I have learned to turn on the TV, pick up my cell phone, turn on the radio, use the internet, my computer – I do it all by myself.”
He cannot use a wheelchair because of his unusual shape, making it hard for him to be independent outside the home but he begged his mother to be allowed to go to school and learn with the other children. Claudio said: “Throughout my life I was able to adapt my body to the world. Right now, I don’t see myself as being different. I am a normal person. “I don’t see things upside-down. This is one of the things I always talk about in my interventions as a public speaker.
“Nowadays it’s much easier to deal with the public, I’m not afraid of it anymore and I can say that I am a professional, international public speaker and that I receive invitations from all over the world.” He has been seen giving talk to student in Feira de Santana. Claudio Vieira de Oliveira is source of inspiration to everyone that against all odds there is success at hand if you work towards it.
