Melisa

David and Yenny work as street vendors in Santa Cruz, Bolivia to support their two teenage children Melisa and Miguel. Yenny shared, "When my daughter, Melisa, was born, they told me she had a heart murmur, but that it would close over time. Not long ago she began to feel pain in her shoulders and shortness of breath when walking. Last year I took her to the emergency room because she had severe pain in her chest. Tests showed that she would need heart surgery. We live from day to day. When my daughter heard us talking about surgery, she became sad and afraid. We always encourage her. For us as parents, your help is a great opportunity for our daughter to be well and get ahead. Thank you very much for the help you have given and for continuing to help so many children who need these surgeries."

On September 5, 2019, U.S. and Bolivian surgeons worked together to perform a subaortic membrane resection to repair Melisa’s subaortic stenosis. Subaortic membrane resection is an open-heart surgery performed with the use of a heart-lung bypass machine. The surgeon opens the chest and then the aorta near the aortic valve. The subaortic membrane is removed, which restores the flow of blood from the left ventricle to the body. This surgery was part of a heart surgery mission program at the Incor Hospital in Santa Cruz in collaboration with the Texas Children’s Hospital, Puente de Solidaridad, and with financial support from the Goff Gift Fund. The surgery was a success and Melisa was released from the hospital four days later.

Go Back >