João Pedro Sitoe "was at the time of youth" when a car accident left him paraplegic, trapped in a bed. It's been 15 years. Were it not for the help of humanitarian institution SAOM, from Gaia, who provides home care with meals and bath, and the days were spent without seeing anyone.
"Two years ago that I did not leave the house. I only see the street when I am taken urgently to the hospital", he laments.
The wall clock is stopped at 6:45 hours. Probably from the time that João Pedro still left on foot, every day, to go to work in the kitchen of a five star hotel in Campo Alegre street, where he lives.
The accident changed his life: he survives with 280 euros of his reform, feinting loneliness with the television. As he can't move alone, he is in bed surrounded by crackers bags and canned food, for him to eat.
On the bedside table, João Pedro, who suffers from diabetes, has water, butter, bread and a kettle "to make a tea". It is also he who, bent over his body, can reach the microwave to heat the soup. The light and the television are lighted with a stick of a broom.
"Only I know how hard it is to live in these conditions, without speaking to anyone", declared João Pedro. And without mobility - the electric wheelchair that he has is broken - "is very difficult to prevent the bedsores appear".
The landlord, who is solidary to his situation, left to charge the income, but João Pedro feels that he will earn "another life if he had the chance to move to a social housing". Preferably, in a ground floor in order to facilitate his locomotion.
For João Pedro it was essential have again an electric wheelchair, to gain some autonomy, like cooking or even to take a bath, in another adapted chair.
João Pedro have an urinary catheter and he often has no one to get him a sack to the feces, ending to become dirty in bed. "It's not hygienic", he lamented. He lives without water.

Text by Marta Neves (Jornal de Notícias newspaper)

João Pedro Sitoe, Stuck In Time
Porto, Portugal
© 2015 Igor Martins (Global Imagens Agency)