By Kristin Munoz
One year ago today, my 13-year-old daughter Bella was reborn thanks to a lifesaving heart transplant. It has been 365 days since we received the phone call that would save her life and allow her to go back to being a normal kid rather than a sick patient.
Bella was a normal healthy, happy kid, but when she was 9-years-old a virus attacked her heart. She was a star athlete and always active and playing, but little by little her heart condition continued to deteriorate leaving her unable to even walk down the hallway at school without struggling to catch her breath. For years she suffered through doctors’ appointments, hospitalizations and more procedures and medications than I can count, but nothing improved her condition. As a mother, it was heartbreaking to see my daughter suffer and terrifying to not know how to fix it. I found myself wishing that I could trade places with her, that I could take the pain on myself so she did not have to hurt.
In January 2018, Bella was hospitalized again, but this time the medications that usually helped her didn’t work. Her heart was not functioning and she went into multi-organ failure. We were told she was in end-stage heart failure and only had moments to live unless doctors intervened. That day, my smart, courageous daughter had emergency open heart surgery. The doctors placed a left ventricular assist device — commonly known as an LVAD — to pump blood in place of her heart.
The following day Bella was placed on the national transplant waiting list at the highest urgency status. She became one of nearly 10,000 New Yorkers waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant. I lived in Bella’s ICU room at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center with her for 83 days and learned how to operate the device so I could eventually take her home while we waited for her transplant.
It was a long and scary road waiting for her new heart. We tried to stay positive and remain hopeful, but we also knew than every 18 hours someone in New York dies waiting for an organ. We hoped and prayed that time was on our side.
Finally, a few days before Mother’s Day 2018, we received the call we had been waiting for — they had found a heart for Bella. It was a miracle. We raced to the hospital filled with excitement and nerves.
The transplant went beautifully. Bella came off the ventilator after 24 hours and was sitting up another 24 hours after that. It wasn’t long before she was walking the hallways of the hospital with ease all thanks to her new beautiful, healthy, working heart. The hospital discharged her after just eight days and it wasn’t long before she was back in school and running around in the yard.
None of this would have been possible without a selfless organ donor who chose to give my young daughter the gift of life. We don’t know Bella’s donor or their family, but they are constantly in our thoughts. In one of the most difficult moments of their life they decided to save a life — they saved my daughter’s life. There are not enough words to express the deep gratitude my family feels toward this incredible stranger.
Now, a year later, Bella has her life back. She is still closely monitored by her doctors, but every time we go to the hospital she insists we go up to the ICU so she can visit other children that are waiting for the gift of life. Bella tells them to have hope, that there are amazing people in this world that will help them. From the bottom of my heart, I ask you to be one of these amazing people, register to be an organ donor and save someone like Bella.
Please visit LiveOnNY.org to learn more and to register as a lifesaving organ donor.
