Seven-year-old Jonenskia was born with a cardiac condition called ventricular septal defect, in which a hole exists between the two lower chambers of her heart.
“Blood flows through the hole in her heart without first passing through the lungs to get oxygen, leaving her sickly and short of breath,” says our medical partner, Haiti Cardiac Alliance (HCA). “Because she has lived for so long with this condition, there is a chance it may no longer be repairable, but the only way to determine this is by inserting a catheter into the chambers of her heart. Since this is not possible in Haiti, arrangements are being made to bring her to Dominican Republic to perform this extremely important test in the hopes that she can have heart surgery later in the year.”
Jonenskia lives in Port-au-Prince with her mother, father, and three sisters. Her father works in construction and her mother stays home with the children. She is in primary school and likes going to school and playing with her friends.
“We are praying to God that Jonenskia can have an operation so that we don’t have to worry about her heart anymore,” her mother says. With $1,500 we can fully fund Jonenskia’s travel, transportation, and diagnostic procedure to help move her treatment forward.