A teenage mother and her baby are now living normal lives after undergoing life-saving surgeries on the same day at Health City Cayman Islands where a medical team repaired a hole in each of their hearts.
Fatima Ramos Cardozo, 16, from Bolivia, and her 2-year-old daughter Maria, were both born with the same heart defect, which doctors say would have likely led to premature death.
Once the cases came to the attention of the Children’s Heart Project, run by the Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse, mother and child were flown to Grand Cayman, to undergo surgery at Health City.
Joy Gruber, international travel coordinator for Samaritan’s Purse, said in a video about the case, “Maria, the little 2 year old, was brought to our screening in Bolivia. She was an ideal candidate for our programme. During that conversation, the mom just happened to mention ‘I was born with a hole in my heart.’
“And sure enough, she came back and she did have a large heart defect, as well. She was under the age of 18, so met our criteria as being a child who could receive heart surgery.”
A medical team led by Dr. Binoy Chattuparambil, Health City’s clinical director and chief cardiac surgeon, performed the surgery at the end of March this year.
Binoy said, despite his decades of experience treating patients from a diverse range of backgrounds, he had never come across a similar scenario.
“Both mother and daughter had exactly the same problem, a big hole in the heart. Surprisingly, I had never seen anything like this,” he said. “I had to operate on the child and mother on the same day.”
Following surgery, an echocardiogram and other tests confirmed that the heart health of both patients was now normal.
Growing up, Fatima had been teased and bullied by her peers because of the symptoms of her heart disease, such as shortness of breath while playing. Her family did not have enough money to get the medical treatment she needed.
Her mother, Pura Cardozo Mendozo, who accompanied her to Cayman, said, “I felt awful that I was not able to do anything for my daughter. The reality was that we were not able to afford an operation. It was so painful to see my daughter like that.”
Now, following the successful surgeries, she can look forward to spending many more years with her daughter and granddaughter.
Fatima said, “When the doctor told me that I would be able to live life like a normal person, with no more heart problems, I felt extremely happy I could live a full life being with my daughter, and not worrying that I would only have a year or two left to live.”
Dr. Corey Furman, a board director of Samaritan’s Purse, praised the coordination between the charities and the surgeons of Health City.
“So the mother saved the baby and the baby saved the mother,” he said. “And both the mother and the grandmother accepted Christ this week. This, I think, has been the best example of what Children’s Heart Project is all about. It all rests in the Lord’s hands.”
Since 2016, Binoy and his colleagues at Health City have performed more than 950 charitable surgeries, including more than 165 complicated procedures which benefited children from countries such as Bolivia, Iraq, Kosovo, Mongolia and Uganda.
Health City, in partnership with Samaritan’s Purse and the Children’s Heart Project, which help meet the needs of people who are victims of war, poverty, natural disasters, disease, and famine, has performed life-saving heart surgeries for hundreds of children from around the world whose families were unable to pay for complicated procedures.
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