Mary Ann Roser
DATE: 10-25-2000
PUBLICATION: Austin American Statesman

Despite a demonstration to show her what heart surgery would be like, Vicky Dominguez, right, still was unnerved. 'She didn't like the idea of a breathing tube or catheter,' said Cynthia Fitchpatrick, center, of Children's Hospital. Yamileth Dominguez accompanied her daughter to Austin from Honduras.
Photo: Taylor Johnson/AA-S photos

Vicky Dominguez looks like your average 11-year-old girl, stylishly decked out in blue jean bell-bottoms white platform sandals and bright blue barrettes that tame her dark hair. She has a passion for hamburgers, pizza and Barbie.

But she also wears the telltale signs of the trouble she has lived with since birth: a hole in her heart.

Vicky's lips are bluish, her nails curl inward and she bends her knees while standing — signs of the heart defect and too little oxygen in her blood. She can't walk more than two blocks at a time, much less keep up with her three younger siblings.

Eleven-year old Vicky today will become the first patient to benefit from HeartGift, a non-profit organization created to help poor families in other countries receive medical attention.

Until Vicky came to Austin on Thursday from her home in Honduras, she was on her way to an early death. But she will have lifesaving heart surgery free of charge today, courtesy of a new nonprofit organization, HeartGift, and support from children's Hospital of Austin, medical professionals and others.

"I thank God they are helping her," Vicky's mother, Yamileth Dominguez, said through an interpreter at the surgeon's office Tuesday.

The surgeon is Dr. Lewis King, a member of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgeons, which founded HeartGift in July.

In recent years, the physicians, group has treated seven children with heart defects from other countries, including Kosovo. The surgeons created HeartGift to meet growing calls for help from poor families that lack access to care in their home countries.

Vicky smiled shyly as King put his stethoscope inside her white T-shirt to check her heart. The shirt, also donated, said in red letters, "HeartGift, mending hearts one gift at a time."

The murmur in her heart is loud, King said as he listened.

"She's very severely limited," he said, adding that if she had been born in the United States, she would have had the surgery years ago.

Vicky, who was diagnosed with the disorder tetralogy of Fallot when she was 3 days old, admitted she was "a little bit scared" about today's surgery. She will awaken with tubes sticking out of her body and will spend several weeks recovering — first in the hospital and then with a host family before returning to Honduras, where her father works as a butcher.

King will patch the hole with Dacron, a cloth-like material. He also will repair a valve to free the blood flow to her lungs. He expects the operation to take two to three hours.

Cynthia Fitchpatrick, a child-life specialist at Children's Hospital who helps prepare children for surgery, used a doll to show Vicky what she should expect. It was the second demonstration — this one done for the benefit of cameras — and she was more relaxed. Her eyes did not tear up, as they had earlier.

"She didn't like the idea of a breathing tube or catheter," Fitchpatrick said.

Before Vicky left the playroom where the doll demonstration was done, Fitchpatrick gave her a Barbie doll — something Vicky does not own in Honduras. She also received a promise from Fitchpatrick, who speaks Spanish, to escort her to the operating room today. Family members are not allowed.

The Christian Commission for Development in Honduras recommended Vicky for the surgery to an organization in Nashville, Tenn., called Healing Wings. That group contacted HeartGift, which did not plan to offer its first surgery until it had raised more money, in January. The group's goal is to reimburse the doctors and hospitals for some of the costs.

But the hospital and doctors were willing to donate their services.

The organization hopes to raise enough money so it can help finance 10 to 12 surgeries a year. Each heart operation, including Vicky's, is expected to cost about $30,000.

"This first surgery is completely gratis," said Elizabeth Schroeder, executive director of HeartGift. "We really appreciate it... We didn't want her to have to wait."