Family of young girl in need of a heart transplant trusts that a miracle will happen

SANTIAGO.- The family of 11 year-old Francisca Ovalle is hoping for a miracle so that a heart donor may be found before Thursday of this week, which is the final deadline after which specialists will no longer allow the girl to be connected to the artificial heart that is currently keeping her alive.

“It is going to happen (the miracle), I am sure that it will”, the girl’s mother, Paula Vergara, told Radio Cooperativa.

Vergara added that Francisca is “a fighter” and “she has always been conscious”.  “She is sedated but she has never lost consciousness and she has always listened to what I say”, she asserted.

The girl is suffering from a dialatate miocadiopathy as well as kidney and liver failure.  Francisca has been identified as a national priority to receive a heart transplant, which must come from a person weighing between 30 and 60 kilos.

The young girl has been hospitalized at the Hospital Clínico de la Universidad Católica, where she is connected to an artificial heart.