Event Celebrates Children Born with Congenital Heart Defects Successfully Treated at Holtz Children’s Hospital
Who:
Holtz Children’s patient Eliana Mendez and her parents; families of children with congenital heart defects treated at Holtz Children’s; UHealth pediatric cardiology physicians and surgeons at Holtz Children’s, and Holtz Children’s nurses
What:
Holtz Children’s Hospital at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center is hosting an event to celebrate children who were born with congenital heart defects and successfully treated at Holtz Children’s.
Former patients will share stories, play games, have entertainment, and celebrate their survival with their former caregivers including physicians, nurses, and social workers from the Children’s Heart Center at Holtz Children’s.
Eliana Mendez was only 6-months old in 2015 when she received a life-saving heart transplant. She first became ill with nausea and lethargy. Her parents, Alejandra and Abdiel Mendez, took Eliana for a check-up, and her pediatrician prescribed medication. However, later that night the Mendezes brought Eliana to the emergency department of their local hospital in Palm Beach County, where her symptoms worsened. That decision likely saved their infant daughter’s life.
Doctors diagnosed Eliana with the life-threatening heart condition dilated cardiomyopathy, which causes the chambers of the heart to enlarge and weaken, leading to heart failure. Eliana was airlifted to Holtz Children’s, home to the Children’s Heart Center, the only accredited pediatric heart failure program in Florida, where UHealth –University of Miami Health System pediatric cardiologists, Paolo Rusconi, M.D., and Eliot R. Rosenkranz, M.D., were waiting. After a thorough evaluation, physicians determined Eliana needed a heart transplant and she was placed on the wait list for a donor heart.
Two months later a donor was found, and on Aug. 21, 2015, Dr. Rosenkranz and a team from the Miami Transplant Institute transplanted a new heart into Eliana. However, Eliana’s new heart did not work sufficiently after the transplant and she was supported for approximately five days by Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), a form of mechanical heart.
“Our program is the most experienced in the region with transplant and ECMO,” said Dr. Rosenkranz. “Eliana’s good outcome is in no small part a reflection of the UHealth team’s experience in this type of advanced heart care at Jackson.”
Eliana was discharged from Holtz Children’s – and her prognosis continues to be good. Eliana will celebrate her 3rd birthday 3on March 10.
When:
February 17, 2018, 11:30 a.m.- 2:00 p.m.
Where:
Jackson Memorial Hospital
Ira C. Clark Treatment Center, Room 270
On the corner of Northwest 12th Avenue and 19th Street
Editor’s Note:
Media can park outside of DTC.
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Jackson Health System
1611 N.W. 12th Avenue Miami, FL 33136
