Alicia

Alicia was born on June 24, 2018, the day that Bolivians celebrate the feast of Saint John, the winter solstice, and “the coldest night of the year.” She is the youngest of three children of José and Yaquelin.

Yaquelin had a complicated pregnancy and had to stop her day job as a seamstress to take care of her health. As soon as Alicia was born, the doctor told her mother that they could hear a murmur in Alicia’s heart and that further tests were needed. She was brought to Incor Hospital because she was constantly sick, had chronic coughs, and constant fever. Alicia also had difficulty breathing, had an uneven heart rate, and was extremely malnourished.

At Incor, Drs. Barrientos and Jaldín diagnosed Alicia with a Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD), a congenital heart condition in which the wall between the left and right heart chambers does not fully close. Alicia’s VSD was quite large and the extra blood being pumped into the lung arteries made her heart work hard and her lungs get congested. To the doctors, it was clear that Alicia needed surgery. Yet, she was weak and malnourished. Dr. Barrientos and Dr. Jaldín decided to postpone the surgery until Alicia could be treated by a nutritionist to gain the strength needed to survive the surgery and make a full recovery.

In addition to this dire diagnosis, José and Yaquelin were concerned because they did not have the necessary resources to cover the costs of surgery. Yaquelin could not go back to her seamstress job because Alicia needed full time attention and care. And José, as an independent lawyer with a variable income, was making barely enough money to make ends meet. At Incor, they were referred to Puente de Solidaridad’s Heart Program. After a socio-economic evaluation, Puente’s social worker in Santa Cruz determined that the Gutiérrez Cuellar family could benefit from the support of the Heart Program through the generous support of Dharma Social Projects.

After a few months of treatment with a nutritionist and the constant support of her parents, Alicia was strong enough for surgery. On January 16, 2019, Dr. Barrientos and Dr. Jaldín completed a pulmonary artery banding to reduce the excessive pulmonary blood flow to treat Alicia’s pulmonary hypertension. Two weeks later, Alicia was released from the hospital and is now recovering at home surrounded by the love of her family.

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