Wilfredo
Wilfredo and his father traveled over 900 kilometers to receive the specialized medical attention that Wilfredo needed. It was a long trip from Tarija to Cochabamba, but it was the only option for Wilfredo to access the medical care and likely surgery that doctors in his local town thought he would require.
Wilfredo is a 15-year-old boy who has presented health issues since birth. Marco, his father, reported that he was usually short of breath and got tired when eating. Wilfredo’s symptoms had worsened in the last few months prior to his trip to Cochabamba. By the time he arrived, Wilfredo was severely malnourished and below average in weight and height for a boy his age.
After a diagnostic catheterization, doctors in Cochabamba determined Wilfredo needed urgent surgery to fix an atrial septal defect (ASD).
Marco was concerned, not only for the life and the medical the condition of his son, but also because Marco’s earnings as a construction worker in Tarija barely allowed him to save enough to make the trip to Cochabamba. Those savings had run out when the stay in Cochabamba was longer than planned.
Marco works in the “informal” sector and his earnings are below Bolivia’s minimum wage. The cost of the highly-complex surgery that his son needed was out of reach for him and his family.
Thanks to Solidarity Bridge’s Children Heart Surgery Program, and funding support and solidarity from Dharma Social Projects and Marco and Wilfredo’s community in Tarija, Wilfredo had his life-saving surgery at the end of May. Wilfredo is now recuperating and ready to make the trip back home to Tarija to join his mother, siblings, and neighbors.