Maria Jose is an 8-year-old girl from El Tortuguero, a little town 300 miles away from Managua. Getting Maria to the Pediatric Heart Center where the surgery could be performed required a dangerous trek for more than 10 hours. Maria Jose has a history of rheumatic heart disease, which left her with a severe aortic stenosis and severe left ventricular hypertrophy. On September 10, 2014, Maria finally received the surgery that saved her life. During the operation, Maria experienced profound bleeding. She endured many tubes for an entire week in the Intensive Care Unit. Doctors couldn’t leave her bedside because she needed round-the-clock care, but in early October, after some weeks of steady healing, Maria made a full recovery and was released from our Heart Center.
