Watsonville Comes Together To Buy Woman Robotic Arm

WATSONVILLE (CBS SF) -- A Watsonville woman who suffers from a rare disease that confines her to a wheelchair received a generous gift this Christmas when her Santa Cruz area community got together to help buy a $50,000 robotic arm.

Brenda Gutierrez Baeza is a survivor. She has hyaline fibromatosis, a disease so rare her doctors told her she is only one of 70 people diagnosed in the world.

Brenda's muscles and tissues don't grow and she uses a feeding tube. While the disease ends most people's lives by the time they are two, Brenda has beaten the odds by surviving to age 21.

She may be confined to a wheelchair with limited use of her arms and legs, but she graduated from high school and has a 3.5 GPA at a Cabrillo College.

Brenda had dreamed of buying a Jaco, a kind of robotic arm that attaches to wheelchairs. But at $50,000, it was far too expensive.

However, thanks to people and the businesses in the Santa Cruz area, enough money was raised. And Brenda got her Jaco robotic arm for Christmas.

With the new robotic arm attached to her wheelchair, Brenda is discovering the freedom of doing things she could never before.

"The first thing I did was turn on my computer and then the light switch," said Brenda.

When it came to purchasing the robotic arm Brenda started a Go Fund Me account in March. But donations flowed in after an August newspaper article publicizing her need.

Suddenly, people who didn't know Brenda personally were organizing fundraisers.

Bartenders at the Rush Inn wrote encouraging notes on pink hearts and, along with Brady's Yacht Club, raised $6,000.

"To be able to see her in her chair with the arm was incredible," said Carla Kornder, a bartender at the Rush Inn.

In total, the community in Watsonville and Santa Cruz raised $44,000 towards buying the arm in three months.

She added $6,000 of her own savings, but just found out Tuesday morning an anonymous donor will cover her contribution.

"It's overwhelming, said Brenda."I always knew there were those kind people out there, but experiencing it firsthand was amazing."

Between learning how to use the arm in daily life, Brenda is studying to be a medical interpreter so she can translate between doctors and Spanish-speaking patients.

Brenda says she's completed Fresno State's six month online training program in medical interpreting. She plans to take the board exam in the spring so she can apply for a job.

She says it is her way of extending her arm in gratitude to her generous community.