Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

On September 17, a Filipina-American will be the honoree—Theresa de Vera, the Commissioner of the Commission on Disabilities in Los Angeles.

Michelle Dean, founding President and Executive Director of GTWT, told the Asian Journal that Theresa embodies the qualities that women should aspire for. "Theresa is a role model of success, despite many limitations. She has shown by her life how you can overcome challenges with faith in God, perseverance and determination," said Michelle.

Theresa de Vera is the Los Angeles’ Commissioner of the Commission on Disabilities. She personifies hope and makes us all believe in the power of miracles. Her amazing recovery from a 3-month coma has been featured in national and international media, including the New York Times, the LA Times, and even The Oprah Winfrey Show in its special episode entitled Miracles.

After suffering a severe asthma attack in 1996, when she was a junior at Loyola Marymount University, Theresa was rushed to the hospital by her parents.

"She was blue by the time I got to the hospital," remembers Ruby de Vera, Theresa’s mother. "She was clinically dead—no heartbeat, no blood pressure."

Theresa lapsed into a coma and was pronounced brain dead. The doctors told her parents that their 20-year-old daughter was beyond hope and requested that they allow her organs to be harvested to bring something redemptive out of the tragedy.

Ruby recalled, "I told the doctors, ‘No way.’ She’s very young and she has every chance to live. We refused to give up hope. We believed God for a miracle." And God did not disappoint them. Three months later, Theresa came back to life. Her slow reconnection with consciousness proved her doctors wrong and brought her family and friends a deeper faith, a profound appreciation of life and an undying belief in miracles.

The coma has damaged Theresa’s motor and speech skills so she moves around with a wheelchair and can’t talk as well as before. But, her mind has not been affected and she has been able to write and move freely from the waist up. After therapy and time for recovery, Tisa, as her family and friends call her, went back to LMU and earned a degree in political science and a master’s degree in pastoral theology.

"There’s a higher power than medical knowledge. Don’t give up too soon," Ruby said.

On being the GTWT honoree for 2010, Theresa said, "It’s a great honor to receive the award. They say I am an inspiration to many but actually we should all be an inspiration. You can inspire anybody—your mother, your brother, your friends, a relative. It should not take somebody like me, you know, almost losing my life—to appreciate how great life is. My best advice is to live everyday to the fullest because you’ll never know what life brings. Tomorrow is not a guarantee. When I became disabled, I thought my life was over, but actually, I only began to live, although in a different level."