Shardy
Shandy would walk an hour to school in her rural village in the state of Sucre in southern Bolivia. Shandy’s mother, Brenda noticed that her daughter was becoming thin and struggling to breathe. She took her to the hospital in the city where Shandy saw cardiologists who diagnosed the 6 year old with Ventrical Septal Defect (VSD) and pulmonary hypertension. Doctors told Shandy’s parents, Brenda and Reynaldo, that she would need a corrective procedure to fix the hole in Shandy’s heart.
Living as subsistence farmers, Brenda and Reynaldo, sought help to cover the cost of the surgical procedure. Fortunately, the cardiologists told them about a pediatric heart surgery mission in Santa Cruz with doctors from the Texas Children’s Hospital. Shandy was selected for participation in this mission program with support from Puente de Solidaridad and the Goff Gift Fund. Bolivian and U.S. surgeons worked together to close the ventrical septal defect in Shandy’s heart. The surgery was a success and she was released from the hospital four days later to return home with her family.