Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Not a Bicycling Tale (but read it anyway)



Luz Estephanie Machiavello. What a beautiful name. What a beautiful little girl. We met Luz in the Childrens Hospital in Lima, Peru, on a recent cardiac surgery mission. She was injured in a motorcycle accident, which severed her right arm, in her village of Juanjui, about 300 miles from Lima in the jungles of northeastern Peru. 14 hours after the accident she arrived at del Nino Hospital. We found her after the amputation.



Shriners Hospital in Tampa, has agreed to treating Luz to fit a prosthetic arm, and to continue to re-fit the prosthetic until she reaches her 18th birthday. American Airlines donated round trip air travel for Luz and her Dad, Hilmer. Luz and Hilmer are staying with us at CardioStart House for 8 weeks during the initial phase of her treatment. Hilmer is a farmer in Peru. While he is here with Luz, her Mom and four siblings are in Peru. Naturally there is no family income during this period. Hilmer is doing some work around CardioStart House, gardening, etc. and we will be paying him a stipend to send back home to help the family during this time of trial.


If you are interested in helping the family or to offset some of the expense, we have set up a special account, "CardioStart - Luz Estephanie Machiavello Account", at Royal Bank Centura, Brandon, Florida. For account number and other information you can email or leave a comment with a return number or email on this blog. Thanks, Chuck






No comments: