Cristina lives with her mother, a food vendor; her father, a construction worker; and eight older brothers and sisters in a neighborhood of La Paz, Bolivia.
As a small baby, she struggled to breathe normally, and so her mother took her to the children’s hospital where she was diagnosed with ventricular septal defect, a hole between the two lower chambers of the heart. Cristina also has Down syndrome.
During surgery, doctors will sew a patch over the hole so that blood can no longer leak through it. Christina needs your help to raise $1,500 to pay for her heart surgery.
Her mother says, “Our family is so grateful to know that there is a way to fix our daughter’s heart so that she can breathe normally.”