“I heard an audible crack and pop, and thought, ‘this isn’t going to be good,’” Gabrielle recalls.
Maria was in immediate pain but refused to go to the hospital for two days.
“I put an ice pack on it,” Maria says. “But by the second night I knew I couldn’t handle the pain anymore.”
Gabrielle and her uncle took her to Harris Health Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital where doctors confirmed Maria had broken her hip.
Still in high spirits, Maria shared with staff that she was going to be a grandmother and soon have a grandson.
The next day surgeons inserted rods and screws to fix her hip.
“It was scary. I’ve never broken anything before,” Maria says. “Everyone was so good to me—the doctors and nurses.”
Once she was discharged, she was up and doing her chores, caring for her mother and brother.
“Now when the weather changes, I can really tell with my new leg,” she says.
Today, she is over the moon excited when her grandson comes by to visit and is able to carry him and walk him thanks to her recovery.
“He’s a cutie pie and he was a big motivation for me to get better.”