A Mission for Keyla

Missions come in all shapes and sizes.
 
This two-day effort in El Salvador wasn’t on our calendar. But when one of our patients needed urgent care to buy her more time, Dr. Jenny Zablah and a team from Children’s Hospital Colorado stepped in — and ended up mending four more hearts while they were there.
 
In 2023, advocates reached out to us about a young girl named Keyla who needed life-saving surgery. She was in El Salvador, and we were asked to bring her to the U.S. for treatment. Despite our best efforts, no hospital would take her case. It was considered too complex and possibly inoperable, and the imaging we had wasn’t conclusive.
 
Thanks to the support of Edwards Lifesciences Foundation, we traveled to El Salvador last fall for an atrioseptostomy training, we saw an opportunity, and we reached out to Keyla's mother to bring her in. We had a rare window to perform a diagnostic cath, a procedure that could finally show us whether we had a path forward.
 
Her mother hesitated. For years, she’d been told that there was no hope. Now, suddenly, a team was offering a procedure. She was scared. The family hadn’t had the chance to say goodbye in case something went wrong.
 
We committed to coming back. Keyla was deeply cyanotic — visibly blue. Every week that passed increased the risk.

In June, Dr. Zablah and two colleagues from Colorado flew down for a 3-day mission focused on helping Keyla. And while there, they helped four more children with urgent cardiac needs. Today, Keyla's lips are pink. She has more energy. In a year, we'll see how her body has adapted and what more can be done for this little girl we're all rooting for.
 
Sometimes the biggest impact comes from the smallest windows of opportunity.
 
Monthly donors give us the flexibility to step in when it matters most. Don't underestimate the power of a modest, consistent gift — it can save a child's life.

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