Montserrat Murillo
Monserrat Murillo’s parents, 27-year-old Fernando and 28-year-old Angela, fought for eight
months to save Monserrat’s life. Her story was dramatic from the start, having been born by
emergency cesarean with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. But the family then
began to settle into a happy routine in their simple home in the city of Oruro with their
apparently healthy baby. Months later, she developed what appeared to be pneumonia, but
was sent to La Paz for further studies. The ambulance transporting Monserrat and her mother
crashed and flipped on its side, fracturing the baby’s shoulder. She was admitted to the ICU in
La Paz, where her overall condition quickly deteriorated. Her lips were blue and she was listless,
and after several days she was finally diagnosed with a combination of congenital heart defects.
Treatment was unavailable in La Paz, so she was sent to Santa Cruz, where she was eventually
referred to Dr. Arturo Barrientos. The young parents and their respective families were rapidly
depleting all their resources in their search to save Monserrat, and so they turned to Fundación
PuenteSol for assistance to help make her heart repair surgery possible.
On May 7, Monserrat received the heart surgery she needed to repair her atrial defect and related conditions. This surgery was made possible through the financial support of Dharma Trading Co. While the surgery was considered successful, as the days passed she remained in the neonatal ICU and continued to be unable to breathe on her own. Monserrat was simply too weak to recover lung function, and she passed away on May 16th.