Ico
Ico was born several weeks premature and spent his first three weeks in the hospital. His father earns a stable income of just over $400 dollars a month, and the family has health insurance through the Caja Nacional health system for Bolivian workers, but the family still had to borrow money to pay for medications and other specialized care not covered by the Caja Nacional system. The Caja doctors also told the family that Ico would need to go to a private hospital for surgery to patch a hole in his heart. It was frustrating for the family to learn that the hospital they relied on could do so little for them in their moment of need.
Puente de Solidaridad was also to connect the family to care at the private Clinica las Americas in Santa Cruz, where he underwent surgery on October 10. Ico is now off all his medications and is catching up to a healthy size and weight.