Nayely

Nayely is the middle of three children of Maria and Christian, both 26. Since Christian abandoned the family two years ago, Maria and her kids live with her mother and two sisters in a crowded rental apartment in the city of Santa Cruz. Maria stays home to run the household and care for her children while her mother and sisters clean homes and offices to provide for the extended family.

In late 2018, Maria began to notice that Nayely would tire quickly when playing with her siblings, and increasingly appeared to struggle to breathe. The pediatrician referred Nayely for evaluation at the Incor hospital, where pediatric cardiologists diagnosed Nayely with a patent ductus arteriosus. In February 2019, the doctors told Maria that her daughter needed surgery to close the fetal blood vessel between her heart and lungs that failed to spontaneously close when she was born. Maria and her sisters and mother were barely getting by already with their eager incomes, which they did their best to supplement by selling food on a corner stand each weekend and taking on additional cleaning jobs. Several months went by while Maria looked for help, until Nayely was selected to benefit from a surgical campaign staffed by a group of visiting surgeons from Texas Children’s Hospital of Houston and financed by several donors including the Goff Gift Fund through the Solidarity Bridge/Puente de Solidaridad Children’s Heart Surgery program.

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