When Claudio Viera de Oliveira was born, doctors didn’t give him very long to live at all. In fact, they told his mother he probably wouldn’t leave the hospital. The reason why? A condition known in the medical community as ‘arthrogryposis‘. But no one ever really uses that word. Nor do they often use Claudio’s name. For he’s more often known, quite simply, as ‘The Man With The Upside Down Head‘.
Claudio is from Monte Santo in Brazil and has gone on to defy the doctors’ expectations. He’s now forty years old and living a full life, despite his crippling disability. He’s doing so well that he’s even forged a career as a motivational speaker.
He’s written a book about his life too. It’s called ‘called ‘El mundo esta a contramano’ (The world is the wrong way around).
‘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,’ he says. ‘I do a bit of accounting, research for clients and consulting’, he says.
‘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.’
Here’s more on Claudio’s incredibly touching and inspiring story:
