Jimmy
Jimmy is the third child of Roger and Orelia of the town of Cliza, Bolivia, where Roger sustains the family as a taxi driver. Since this would be Orelia’s third cesarean, the family saved money to schedule the birth in a small private clinic, hoping to assure optimal conditions for mother and baby. The pediatrician on hand to receive the newborn detected a heart murmur and referred the family to the public children’s hospital in Cochabamba for further testing. Specialists there performed an echocardiogram, through which they diagnosed Jimmy with several heart malformations which together are known as tetralogy of Fallot. To refine their findings, doctors performed a diagnostic catheterization, during which the baby unexpectedly suffered a seizure, for which he was then referred to the neurology department for evaluation. The family scrounged for the money needed to pay the brain imaging indicated by the neurologist to determine the reason for the seizure, with inconclusive results. After several agonizing months of hospital visits and worry, while the parents juggled to also care for their two older children and aging parents at home, Jimmy was approved for open heart surgery. While tetralogy of Fallot cannot be fully corrected, doctors agreed to perform a Blalock procedure in which a small shunt is inserted to improve blood flow from the heart to the lungs.
By then, Jimmy’s parents and their extended family had spent all their savings, and Roger had even taken out a loan to cover Jimmy’s multiple lab tests. They had no resources left, not only for the surgery itself but for the extended hospital stay necessary before and after the intervention. But through the generosity of the Goff Family Fund, Jimmy was able to undergo surgery on June 5, 2023, at the Los Angeles Clinic in Cochabamba. He required a second surgery soon after, but recovered sufficiently to go home with his family on June 24. His medical team and the social workers at Puente de Solidaridad continue to monitor his evolution and accompany the family as they care for their fragile but delightful little boy.