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.