 |
Courtesy of the Bachelis Family
|
Abi, 2, will be home for the holidays. |
Seriously ill children follow in twins' path
BY Amy waddell
UCLA TODAY
It’s been more than three years since UCLA’s most celebrated twins, Maria de Jesús and Maria Teresa Quiej Álvarez, underwent their landmark 23-hour separation surgery as people worldwide held their breath.
The masses of TV news vans and reporters are long gone, but children with life-threatening illnesses and no medical resources have kept coming to Mattel Children’s Hospital from China, Ecuador, El Salvador, England, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, the Philippines and Romania.
Since the twins’ surgery, 27 others, ages 1 to 18, who were unable to get medical care in their own countries, have been treated by UCLA specialists in cardiology, neurology, optometry and cancer, thanks to the Two Marias International Children’s Fund.
In 2004, Mel Gibson established the fund through Healing the Children, the same nonprofit organization that brought the conjoined twins to UCLA. The actor donated $5 million to Mattel hospital and $5 million to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to care for those whose families can’t afford medical treatment or can’t obtain it because it isn’t available in their countries.
The latest to benefit is a lovable 2-year-old girl from Quito, Ecuador, who is returning home Dec. 14 in time to spend the holidays with her family after a seven-month stay here to undergo two surgeries to correct a congenital heart defect. It made her heart so large and thick, it couldn’t pump efficiently.
“When we first got Abi, we were told we would ‘fix a heart and break our own,’ ” said Jamie Bachelis, Abi’s volunteer foster mother, arranged by Healing the Children. “We just pray that we will be able to keep in touch, and, even if from a distance, we hope Abi’s family will help us to continue to stay in her life. This incredible journey that we have taken will live on in our hearts forever.” Her own daughter, Sarah, has undergone four successful surgeries at UCLA to correct five heart defects.
“Abi is truly remarkable,” said Juan Alejos, associate professor of pediatric cardiology at Mattel. “The Bachelises have done an extraordinary job of getting her through very difficult surgeries."
|
