Renata
Most ventricle septal defects – congenital malformations in the wall between the lower heart chambers – close on their own as babies grow. But when her parents took Renata for her latest annual monitoring, cardiovascular surgeon Dr. Paula Rodriguez broke the news that Renata, now four, would need surgical intervention. Dr. Carlos Brockmann accessed Renata’s heart via a thoracotomy to patch the defective muscle. After just five days at the private Clinica Los Olivos in Cochabamba, Renata was sufficiently recovered to go home. She is now back in kindergarten.