When Gratitude Is All We Can Give: A Mother’s Daily Fight to Keep Her Daughter Healthy

A Mother’s Daily Fight to Keep Her Daughter Healthy

Born with Down syndrome and severe heart and gastrointestinal conditions, a Chapala

toddler depends on intensive care — and on Niños Incapacitados to cover essential

treatment costs.

Noemi, 38, and her husband have four children, the last of whom was born 2½ years

ago with Down syndrome. He works two jobs, up to 12 hours a day; she cleans three

houses regularly.

Remarkably, so far, this little girl’s terrible chromosomal condition has been the least of

this Jocotepec couple’s worries.

This daughter also was born with heart and gastrointestinal issues. She is on a special

diet, including special milk. And Mom also needs to irrigate the girl’s colon once a week

to prevent constipation.

Usually, the little girl naps from 7 to 10 p.m. nightly, then plays with her mother until

about 1 p.m., Noemi noted. The mother tries to nap, too, but she needs to prepare

dinner and give her other children attention. She also needs to get those other children

up for school early the next day. (Her husband usually comes home about 7-8 p.m.)

Until she was age 2, the little girl had a colostomy bag hanging from her belly (which her

mother changed 2-3 times a day, about as often as her diapers). When they removed

the bag recently, the child developed a hernia, which required anesthesia during her

operation in Guadalajara – which was free, but required the family to provide sutures,

syringes, disinfectant and other surgery supplies.

Such supply costs are covered by Niños Incapacitados because they are well beyond

typical family incomes. Other costs, such as the special milk, colostomy bags and bus

fares, were covered, too.

As Graciela Ducet, a bilingual Niños clinic volunteer and clinic manager, noted, “I wish I

could say this case is extreme or unique, but it’s not.”

Noemi and her family could not have coped financially and emotionally without help

from Niños Incapacitados. To the charity’s donors, she expressed “gratitude and

appreciation and blessings,” noted Ducet, who translated for Noemi. “She is forever

thankful.”

Niños Incapacitados is a nonprofit organization that provides local Mexican families with

financial aid to cover medical and related expenses for children battling serious or life-

threatening illnesses. To learn more, visit www.programaninos.com.