Badge of Triumph

For Sylvia Prado, the honorary Explorer’s badge given to her Wednesday night by Santa Ana police is a symbol of how far she has come in the nearly eight years since her dreams of becoming a police officer were shattered.

Sylvia was left severely disabled after being struck by a car on Feb. 12, 1991. Her injuries were so extensive that doctors predicted she would remain in a vegetative state. But on Wednesday, the 21-year-old was bright, alert and squealing with excitement when officials helped her put on an Explorer’s shirt with badge No. 913 pinned to it.

“She has earned her badge and earned her place in our post as an honorary Explorer,” post advisor Alan Caddell said. “We are happy to be part of this.”

Even the badge number is symbolic. In police radio code, 913 means an officer has received clearance to continue with an assignment, and the other young men and women in the Explorer program picked that number for her badge.

“That’s the message the Explorers want to send,” Caddell said. “She’s 913 to pursue her dream. It probably won’t be in law enforcement, but there are other jobs where she can use her skills. She’s a remarkable young woman.”

At the age of 13, Sylvia was struck down as she crossed Warner Avenue, near Bristol Street. She was in the pedestrian walkway when a driver swerved around a stopped car and hit her.

Doctors told the family that Sylvia would spend the rest of her life in a darkened world, where she would not be able to see or communicate, said her mother, Magdalena Prado. Gone were Sylvia’s dreams of becoming a police officer.

But Sylvia’s determination, helped along by therapy and surgery, proved the doctors wrong. She began to relearn and regain limited body movement, including the ability to arch her eyebrows in response to questions, move her head from side to side and slightly manipulate her hands and feet.

Her mother said Sylvia cannot talk but makes yelling sounds when she is happy. On Wednesday, Sylvia was eagerly awaiting the ceremony, she said.

“When I picked her up from school in the afternoon, I told her today was the day that she visits the Police Department. She yelled with happiness,” Prado said.

“I asked her if she would still want to become a police officer if she recovers one day. She said, ‘Yes.’ That is still her hope,” her mother said.

Sylvia’s parents enrolled her in special-education classes at Santa Ana Valley High School, where she was categorized as profoundly retarded. But Jeanie McCabe, her teacher, learned that the young woman was not blind and was able to communicate by arching her eyebrows up and down.

McCabe appealed to the public for contributions to buy Sylvia a special computer. Luis Prado’s co-workers at Waste Management of Orange County raised enough money to buy his daughter a laptop computer, which she uses to communicate.

The computer announces the letters of the alphabet so Sylvia can hear them and choose the letters she wants by using her chin to press a switch.

Luis Prado chose not to attend the ceremony.

“It’s very hard for my husband,” Magadalena Prado said. “He remembers that Sylvia wanted to be a police officer, and he breaks down every time he talks about it. He doesn’t want to ruin Sylvia’s night by crying in front of her when she’s honored.”

Attending the ceremony was only slightly easier for her, she added.

“I’m happy and sad at the same time. You see your daughter as she is and remember her as she was,” she said.

For Sylvia, though, only happiness was apparent Wednesday as she yelled with delight during the ceremony, which was followed by a post inspection and K-9 demonstration in her honor.

“She never imagined she would have this,” her 18-year-old sister, Veronica, said. “We are very thankful to the Santa Ana Police Department for making her so happy and joyful. She will never, never forget this day.”