SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - A young girl came to South Florida from Cuba in hopes of getting some lifesaving treatment, where a lawmaker stepped in to lend a helping hand.
Six-year-old Vanessa Alfonso Lupianez is fighting a big battle after she was diagnosed with cancer in 2021. She was inside a hospital in her home country of Cuba, where her mother told 7News she would not have survived much longer.
“She needs medicine to survive, but they don’t have it, and they don’t let you bring it. It’s hard because you say, ‘I’m going to lose my daughter,’” said Jennifer Lupianez.
Her parents say doctors in Cuba were just simply not equipped to care for their daughter. Lupianez and her mother were also told they had to be isolated for over 70 days, even from their own family.
“I couldn’t see my son or my husband, and she couldn’t see her brother or her father,” said Jennifer.
As her daughter got seemingly worse, doctors removed one of her kidneys, but the cancer had spread. It was tough, her mom said, and that’s when Vanessa’s grandfather, who lives in South Florida, decided to step in.
He reached out to Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar in hopes of bringing his granddaughter to South Florida for the treatment she desperately needed.
“That’s why I’m a congresswoman,” said Salazar.
Representative Salazar said after months of work, she was able to help get Lupianez and her whole family humanitarian parole.
“We fought and we fought and we fought, and I want to be extremely grateful to the public servants in the State Department and Homeland Security, everyone that I called personally, begging them please to give this child another opportunity,” said Salazar.
All four of them arrived in Miami just last week. Lupianez will be treated at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital.
She just recently underwent various exams there, as they work to determine the best path forward. For now, Jennifer said she’s thankful to the congresswoman and thankful her daughter now has a fighting chance.
“It’s an opportunity for life for our daughter,” said Jennifer.
Lupianez is expected to begin her treatment at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital very soon.
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