A Journey of Hope: Daniella's Story of Healing and Miracles

Daniella appeared on our radar 5 years ago. The request to help her came from someone who had heard about her plight at church from her pastor's pulpit. He had been contacted by the child’s father, who was also a pastor in Africa. Daniella was 13 years old, a sweet girl with a broken heart, living in Malawi, a landlocked nation in Southern Africa where the majority of the population earned under $2 a day. There were no cardiac or catheterization services available in the country. They could barely afford the tests to confirm the extent of her disease, and the family could not afford the cost of repairing her heart in South Africa. Appeals for prayers to save her were sent out through their pastoral network, and the ripple effect landed at our door.
 
When Mending Kids was founded, it had one program (Individual Surgical Care) and a lovely cushion of disposable cash to repair children’s hearts—carte blanche—at many hospitals in Los Angeles and around the world. It was a matter of a request coming in, getting the studies to the appropriate surgeon, applying for travel visas, identifying a host family, scheduling the operation, putting a child on a plane to get mended, and writing a check. Although most of the steps haven’t changed, if we had kept pace with that approach, Mending Kids would likely have closed its doors more than fifteen years ago. The person who advocated for Daniella was still operating in the past. Having to explain how our programs worked and that, in order to remain sustainable, we had to fundraise for Daniella to get her lifesaving procedure, taking the air out of her balloon of enthusiasm. We ended the meeting with her promise to pray for us (to help Daniella).
 
Given the complexity of her repair and the fact that we did not have the several hundred thousand dollars of disposable budget to bring her to the U.S., we had to look into more practical options. As it happened, we had a team heading to Tanzania in the fall of 2019. If we could travel Daniella to Dar es Salaam, we could have our doctors do the diagnostic catheterization needed to see if she was operable and, if so, what the roadmap would be. While people were praying, we were coordinating Daniella’s flights. By October, we had the answers. Sending her to India was an option, but given her complexity, if something went wrong—as it sometimes happens—God forbid, we would never hear the end of it. Europe offered a more manageable option, but it would have meant using ⅓ of our Individual Surgical Care program budget—one Daniella heart repair vs. five to seven other kids getting the same opportunity. While we were figuring out the financial options, COVID-19 popped up its ugly head and the world shut down. Everyone was in survival mode.

Fast forward 4 years, Daniella is still on our minds, and we are still looking for a Hail Mary to get her surgery. In August of 2023, Isabelle, our Executive Director, attended the World Pediatric Congress in Washington, D.C., and as it turns out, our Mending Kids’ table was next to Mission Bambini, an Italian NGO. After a round of introductions, we found out that they brought international children from abroad for surgery in Milan, mostly from Albania. Isabelle didn’t miss an opportunity to mention Daniella. She was now 17, less than half-year away from turning 18, the cutoff age for most help in the pediatric world. Time was running out. We needed a miracle soon. Being at the right place and the right time, we cashed in whatever karma chips we had left and painted a compelling case to help Daniella to Mission Bamini. And then the sea parted by way of the surgeon who volunteered with them. He walked up to our table and we were introduced. Within ten minutes, Isabelle was sharing her files with him. Within fifteen minutes, he was telling her that she was risky yet operable and he could help her.  Eighteen minutes in, we were talking to Mission Bambini about getting the ball rolling. For all the jaded cynics out there, miracles do happen. Mission Bambini would cover all the surgical costs. We just needed to coordinate getting her visas, flight tickets, and pay for accommodations. This was financially feasible! They were asking us how quickly we could schedule her, because they also had a bit of funds left in their budget to help her. It just needed to be locked in before the end of the year.  We were doing virtual cartwheels. How hard could that be?  Well, all of a sudden we needed a new round of updated echoes because all the prior ones had expired. This meant getting the family to travel 3+ hours to Lilongwe to get her a new echocardiogram. This also meant wiring money to the family to pay for the tests and all documentation needed. By the time we had all the official attestations from the Milan hospital’s offer of services, via Mission Bambini and Mending Kids, her vaccination records, income records, and finally the new tests. The flights were booked for her to travel mid-January 2024! We were at last ready to have Daniella’s family apply for her visa, only to learn that Italy did not have an embassy in Malawi; we had to go through the Norwegian Embassy. Panic set in as getting in touch with these Scandinavians was frustrating since their website was down and diplomatic bureaucracy was shutting down for the Christmas holiday. After several days of attempting, our coordinator, Daphne, managed to get an attaché and she was able to convey the urgency of Daniella’s visa application for Italy. In the end, though we had missed the Malawi deadline by a day, our new Norwegian friend expedited her dossier to his Embassy in South Africa and the visa was quickly approved. A Christmas miracle indeed.
 
The family made plans, and as the new year was rung in, Daniella turned 18, and she and her mom showed up at the airport to board their flights to Milan. Except they weren’t allowed to. Come to learn that because a wheelchair was ordered to spare Daniella from walking long distances, Ethiopian Airlines had not told us that she needed a medical clearance issued within 48 hours of departure on a special form, to clear her for travel. We wanted to scream in frustration, and we did. Thankfully, the Italian hospital rescheduled her procedure, and we were able to help Daniela and her mom arrange for the medical clearance. Two days later, Daniella and her mom took off from Malawi and landed in the middle of a frosty Italian winter. Mission Bambini was there to receive them and get them situated once they arrived. 

More tests were scheduled to reconfigure her physiology. As expected, the disease had advanced, and the repair was going to be more complicated, therefore riskier. More prayers poured in, and faithful volunteers from Mission Bambini were there to support the mom. Daniella was scheduled for her operation and after many long hours, she thankfully survived the procedure. She was recovering as expected when she unexpectedly suffered a seizure. Panic set in from near and afar as we all stood by helplessly trying to understand this turn of events. Her mom was understandably distraught. Her father more so, as travel to join them was not permitted and all we could do was hold our collective breaths. Under the medical team’s expert care, Daniella was stabilized. More tests were run when it was revealed that she had suffered seizures in the past (somehow it had slipped the family’s mind to share this). Regardless, the medical personnel at the hospital went above and beyond to address this newly uncovered condition and put her on the right course of medication to control this from happening again. What was supposed to be a 3-week visit to Italy turned into a 6-week stay. Everyone knew that once Daniella returned home, if a complication arose, she would not be able to get to the closest medical center to receive appropriate medical care. She needed to be stable. In the captivation of her recovery, no one realized that the visa had expired for both the mother and the patient. They were now officially illegally in the country, even though they had a valid and compelling excuse. There were 3 tense days while everyone scrambled to get the documents extended. Two months after arriving, our friends at Mission Bambini were able to put them on flights home to a father and relatives who were eagerly awaiting their arrival. 

We took our time to be able to share her story and all that went into helping her because nothing is ever a guarantee. Life happens. We are happy to report that 4 months have passed since she was reunited with her pastor-father.  We are praising our partners, all the volunteers, and our tireless coordinator who rode the rollercoaster of Daniella's recovery to a happy ending. The journey to care is never a straight line. It involves a lot of moving parts, a lot of dedicated individuals who commit to seeing our patients through the process, and a lot of unexpected twists and turns. There are no guarantees, but once we accept helping a patient, we rely on our resourcefulness, partnerships, and compassion to see that our patients return home to their families mended.
 
If there are more prayers to be expressed, it is for the many more kids on our waiting list hoping that they too will beat the odds and have a chance to receive the life-saving care that will transform their lives and restore their futures.

Mend a Child