Maya
Maya was born by c-section at around 38 weeks gestation, weighing in at a whopping 9.5 pounds. But within days of birth, her mother, Karina, grew alarmed that something was wrong with her chubby little girl who cried day and night, felt cold to the touch, and struggled to eat. The doctors told Karina the baby had colic and scolded Karina for not feeding her enough, noting Maya had lost weight and her labs showed low glucose. Karina took her home again, only to rush to another hospital when Maya wouldn’t settle down and continued to feel unusually cold, despite being bundled in blankets. Eventually Maya was transferred by ambulance to Cochabamba’s public maternal and children’s hospital where she was admitted into the NICU on oxygen.
When Maya was 8 days old, doctors determined that she needed emergency surgery to repair severe aortic coarctation, a condition that restricts blood flow to the lower part of the body. Puente de Solidaridad social worker Marizol Mamani was called in to coordinate the urgent scheduling of the especially complex surgery needed at Cochabamba’s prestigious Los Olivos clinic. The surgery would normally cost over $12,000 dollars at Los Olivos, but Marizol was able to secure a solidarity rate and pull together multiple sources of support to make sure that finances did not delay care.
Maya spent ten days in post-op recovery before going home. When Marizol reached out to Karina one month later, she was thrilled to report that Maya was a better color and developing on track.