SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - Several young heart patients have been reunited with the medical professionals who saved their lives at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Southwest Miami-Dade.
Aimee Cuccia, a parent, was overcome with emotion as she remembered when her daughter had open-heart surgery.
“It’s almost surreal to be here and to look at her at almost 3 years old and how well, and it’s just amazing and a miracle,” she said.
Alexis, her daughter, was born with a heart defect and underwent surgery when she was just over a week old. Thanks to Redmund Burke, a doctor at the hospital, and his team, Alexis and her mother have a new chapter of life to look forward to.
About eight in every 1,000 babies are born with a heart defect and some with the most severe cases most likely need surgery or a procedure in their first year of life.
Alexis was not the only patient to meet the doctors and nurses at the hospital, Monday.
Luca, another patient of Burke’s, was also on hand to reunite with the nurses and doctors at the hospital.
“Luca is here today because of them,” Melanie Argueta, Luca’s mother, said.
When he was 8 days old, Luca underwent a successful heart surgery. Now he’s almost 2 years old, and Luca could not be healthier.
“Everything is possible when you believe in good doctors, good medicine, God, of course,” Jose Argueta, Luca’s father, said.
When Amara Okpala was told she needed to undergo heart surgery in 2015, she did not think she would be able to run again.
“When I was told I was going to have heart surgery, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to run again, and after surgery, I was able to run. It was amazing,” Okpala, now 13, said.
Ebele Okpala, Amara’s mother, said the surgery has helped her daughter become who she is today.
“The fact that today she could do what she can do, play the sport she wants to play and able to be the number one child in the world is all I wanted from her,” she said.
Burke said the doctors and nurses are fortunate to allow the young patients to lead normal lives.
“Most of them faced something none of us could imagine: being told their baby might die at birth from a heart defect, and that’s why we’re here to try and do everything we can to save those babies,” Burke said.
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