Karime
& Maribel:
Karime & Maribel are young patients who we met at the Tijuana
garbage dump. Both young girls had congenital heart defects and were in
need of surgery. HHAB partnered with Healing
the Children, another non-profit organization, to bring these two
little girls to Los Angeles
for their surgeries in November 2004. Healing the Children placed Karime
and Maribel with a Spanish-speaking foster family in Los Angeles, and their surgeries were donated by Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA.
Karime had pulmonic stenosis (a faulty heart valve) and underwent a balloon
angioplasty at UCLA just before Thanksgiving 2004. She also has a history
of hip dysplasia, which could not be corrected until her heart was in sufficient
condition. She
did extremely well, and in October 2005 she had surgery to correct her hip
dysplasia at Shriner’s Hospital in
Los Angeles
.
Maribel had complex congenital heart disease. She was
fairly fragile when we first met her, unable to play with other children.
She would quickly get short of breath and turn blue upon exertion.
Uncorrected, she would not have lived a long life. She underwent an
extensive open heart surgery at UCLA which helped to shunt her blood and improve
blood flow from her heart. The surgery was performed in early December
2004 and she remained in
Los Angeles
for several weeks at the hospital and in foster care during her recovery.
Unsure if she would make it back to
Mexico
in time for Christmas, she asked her dad via telephone to make sure Santa
didn't forget her and left her presents in
Mexico
, since Santa didn't have a passport to come to the
U.S.
! She can now play along with other children and has returned to school,
where she is excelling.
Binational Health Week:
In
2004 and 2005, Healing Hearts Across Borders participated in a health fair at
the Mexican Consulate in
Los Angeles
for Binational Health Week. Binational Health Week is an annual event
organized by federal, state, and local entities in the
United States
and
Mexico
to promote the health of Latinos on both sides of the border. Events take
place in multiple
U.S.
states, as well as multiple Mexican states. HHAB ran a booth at the
health fair and offered health screenings such as blood pressure checks,
children’s growth charts, and laboratory screenings.
