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Monday 1 September 2014

Guys, Meet the Man with an Upside Down Head (Photos)

Claudio Vieira de Oliveira was born in Monte Santo,
Brazil, with badly deformed legs, he has almost no
use of his arms and hands and his neck has turned
his head upside down.
But rather than simply wallow in his disadvantages,
this 37-year-old man has defied the odds to become
an accountant and inspirational public speaker.
The fact that he's alive at all is a medical miracle.
Claudio was given virtually no chance of survival
when he was born, with doctors even telling his
mum, Maria Jose, to stop feeding him as they
believed he would not live for long.
But today, Claudio has learned how to do everyday
things using other parts of his body – he types with a
pen held in his mouth, operates phones and a
computer mouse with his lips and has specially made
shoes that allow him to shuffle around town.
He was carried everywhere for the first few years of
his life but started to walk on his knees when he was
eight-year-old. His family changed the floor of their
house so he could walk around without injuring
himself and his bed, plugs and lights were all
lowered so he wouldn't have to ask for help.
After begging his mother to let him go to school and
learn with other children, Claudio – who has only
recently been diagnosed with the condition known as
congenital arthrogryposis – eventually qualified as
an accountant from the State University of Feira de
Santana.
Now, after his educational successes, Claudio sees
himself as no different to anyone else. Explaining
how he has learned to live as normally as possible,
Claudio said he never wanted to depend on other
people. He said:
"Throughout my life I was able to adapt my body to
the world. Right now, I don't see myself as being
different. I am a normal person. I don't see things
upside-down. This is one of the things I always talk
about in my interventions as a public speaker.
Nowadays it's much easier to deal with the public,
I'm not afraid of it any more and I can say that I am a
professional, international public speaker and that I
receive invitations from all over the world. I do a bit
of accounting, research for clients and consulting. 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."
Claudio's story appears in Body Bizarre, which starts
on September 4, 9pm on TLC

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