Parents Hope For A Big Gift Of Little Heart
The parents of Cecelia Guerra hung four red stockings on the metal bars at the end of her tot-sized hospital bed. They put a small tree laden with angel ornaments on the bedside table, partially hiding the blinking monitors measuring her vital signs. And they placed a green velvet jumper over the 2-1/2-month-old baby girl, carefully lifting the tangle of tubes keeping her alive while she waits for a new heart at Kaiser Permanente hospital.
“Merry Christmas, sweetheart,” whispered her mother Lisa Guerra, 25, stroking the infant’s hand Thursday morning in the pediatric intensive care unit.
Cecelia has hypoplastic left heart syndrome. A pumping chamber did not form properly, making it difficult for her body to get enough blood.
The infant is at the top of Loma Linda University Medical Center’s heart transplant list. Her father, Jesse, keeps one hand near a pager, waiting for it to go off, signaling that a tiny heart has become available somewhere.
“That’s all she wants,” the 27-year-old father said. “She asked Santa to bring her a new heart.”
The Guerras know the odds their critically ill daughter faces. Most babies in her condition can live only three or four months without a transplant. About one in five die waiting for one.
Cecelia also has a blood type - O negative - that makes it more difficult than usual to find a donor. And around Thanksgiving, she caught a respiratory virus that caused a lung infection, which has lingered ever since. She has remained sedated for weeks, hooked up to life support and a respirator.
Her parents slept in the hospital room overnight so they could be with Cecelia first thing Christmas morning. The girl’s middle name is Angelica and at least 100 angel dolls and stuffed animals filled the room, sent by family and friends. Some rested on her small bed, while others lined shelves along the walls.
The parents, who wear small wings pinned to their clothes, had explained to their three other children that their present opening would have to wait. The other three kids, who range in age from 5 to 7 - Jesse, Raymond and Andrea - saw their sister when she was in the regular hospital nursery. But they are not allowed in the ICU because young children too often carry germs.
The young couple was told when Lisa was seven months pregnant that their daughter would need a new heart. They held out hope that some miracle would change what the doctors saw on the ultrasound. But the reality set in when Cecelia was born.
“I couldn’t handle it when I saw her for the first time,” said Jesse. “Here was this beautiful little girl, and she could go at any minute.”
Lisa quit her job as a clerk so she could stay with Cecelia full time in the hospital. Jesse began working overtime at his steel warehouse job , while logging three-hour round trip drives between the hospital and work.