{"id":58560,"date":"2015-04-26T21:49:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-27T01:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rarediseases.org\/get-to-know-portraits-of-courage-honoree-devin-alvarez\/"},"modified":"2015-04-26T21:49:00","modified_gmt":"2015-04-27T01:49:00","slug":"get-to-know-portraits-of-courage-honoree-devin-alvarez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rarediseases.org\/es\/get-to-know-portraits-of-courage-honoree-devin-alvarez\/","title":{"rendered":"Get to Know Portraits of Courage Honoree, Devin Alvarez"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Devin Alvarez is a remarkable 18-year-old who has undergone 44 surgeries related to Sprengel Deformity, a rare disease in which the shoulder blade is displaced upward, causing skeletal and muscular deformities and medical complications.\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-medium wp-image-19108 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/rarediseases.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Devin-Alvarez-1-234x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"234\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy back is full of scars because of all my surgeries.\u00a0 When I look at myself in the mirror, I don\u2019t grieve. \u00a0The scars are motivation for me to continue on and strive for greatness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Devin recalls waking up during one surgery.\u00a0 His lungs had filled with fluid.\u00a0 Most people would have been terrified to hear what Devin overheard from doctors that day.\u00a0 Instead, Devin was able to gather strength and get through the procedure, likening the experience to \u201cjust like anything else you have to go through.\u00a0 For instance, I am in high school now and I compare these things to a homework assignment. \u00a0I keep on striving, no matter what happens to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Devin attributes his strength and courage to his mother, Rixys, and music.\u00a0 He aspires to one day be the face of hope for people who are going through difficult times, and to reach people through his music and poetry using his stage name, Titan, a tribute to the two titanium rods in his chest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to make music that inspires others to never lose hope, to never stop seeing the light, and to keep going.\u00a0 Trust me, I did not know if I was going to live or going to die; I did not see myself reaching the age of 13, and then I did not see myself graduating high school, and I\u2019m doing it.\u00a0 My story is for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>NORD is honored to tell Devin\u2019s story as part of the 2015 Portraits of Courage celebration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Devin Alvarez is a remarkable 18-year-old who has undergone 44 surgeries related to Sprengel Deformity, a rare disease in which the shoulder blade is displaced upward, causing skeletal and muscular &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/rarediseases.org\/es\/get-to-know-portraits-of-courage-honoree-devin-alvarez\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Get to Know Portraits of Courage Honoree, Devin Alvarez&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11808,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[537,547,377,538,548],"class_list":["post-58560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-nordgala15","tag-devin-alvarez","tag-portraits-of-courage","tag-portraits-of-courage-honorees","tag-sprengell-deformity"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rarediseases.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rarediseases.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rarediseases.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rarediseases.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rarediseases.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rarediseases.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rarediseases.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rarediseases.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rarediseases.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rarediseases.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}