 |
|
|
 Health & Beauty | April 2007 
Mexican Boy Awaits Heart Replacement
 Jon Gambrell - Associated Press
| | Adrian Flores Saucedo, 8, of Piedras Negras, Mexico, who suffers a viral infection that is eating away at his heart tissue, plays with a toy at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock, Ark. |
An 8-year-old boy from northern Mexico is hospitalized in Arkansas awaiting a possible replacement for his diseased heart.
Adrian Flores Saucedo and his mother flew to Little Rock by jet from San Antonio, where he had stayed for 60 days at Methodist Children's Hospital of South Texas. Residents there raised about $500,000 for the boy, who suffers a viral infection that is eating away at his heart tissue.
"In many children, it just gives you a common cold, but in certain settings, it will cause an inflammation of the heart," said Dr. Elizabeth Frazier, head of the cardiac transplantation program at Arkansas Children's Hospital. "It permanently damages the heart muscle; it actually kills the heart muscle."
Arkansas Children's Hospital agreed to accept Adrian after several hospitals rejected him as a patient. The Little Rock hospital's 25-bed heart unit already has more patients than beds after also taking in cases from Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. But Frazier said admitting the boy would not put too much strain on their program.
Palmira Arellano, a spokeswoman for Methodist Children's Hospital, said no hospitals in San Antonio do heart transplants for children and she did not know why other U.S. hospitals rejected Adrian. But she acknowledged that concerns for transplants extended beyond simply saving a child's life, but also whether Adrian could receive adequate care and medication on his return to Mexico.
Currently, the boy and his family are in the United States on a humanitarian visa, but they plan to return home if Adrian receives a new heart, which could take days or spill over into months.
Frazier said a doctor who cares for transplant patients in Monterrey, Mexico, more than 200 miles from the boy's home in Piedras Negras, would provide follow-up visits for the boy if he receives a heart transplant. Piedras Negras is about 140 miles from San Antonio.
"We will work with the Mexican government, which had already contacted us and will support him in whatever way is needed, be it financial, transportation, visas or whatever is required," Frazier said.
After arriving Thursday, Adrian quietly played with toys in a room at the hospital's pediatric intensive-care unit. His mother, Christian Lizeth Saucedo-Valdez, stood by, shoulders slumped from fatigue.
Saucedo-Valdez said she still has not explained to Adrian why he remains in the hospital, fearing she might scare him more. Instead, she tells him everything will turn out fine in the end.
But the money the family has received for Adrian's care surpassed anything she thought could happen, with envelopes with small bills and checks coming from Mexico, Texas, California and Virginia.
"We feel so content," his mother said. "So many people have given money to help us pay for this operation." |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us