On May 3rd, at around 10:50 pm Julieta had a Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) while working out with her sister Patty. Patty quickly called 911 after realizing what happened and was guided by the operator on how to perform CPR on her while the medical team reached our house. The EMT’s arrived after what felt like an eternity, and they began resuscitation maneuvers and were eventually able to bring her back after approximately 23 minutes of not having a pulse. After this, she grew stable enough to be taken in the ambulance to the Texas Children’s hospital in the Woodlands. They performed a thoracic X-Ray and an MRI on her brain to assess her condition better, and the doctors told us that those tests appeared to be good news. While she was stable, they moved her to the Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston since they felt that location was better equipped to provide for the care she needed.
Once there, her situation turned unstable yet again and identified that she was unable to get enough oxygen in her lungs due to the trauma generated caused by the vigorous resuscitation procedure. On top of this, her heart also became unable to irrigate her body with the blood it needed on her own, and because of this, they had to perform an emergency ECMO today at 5 am. An ECMO is a procedure in which they perform a bypass on the heart and lungs so that an extracorporeal machine can perform their job for her, essentially placing her in out of body life support. The procedure required to open Julieta’s chest to get everything set up, and because of this, they decided to keep her under for the time being to avoid the trauma and shock that could come from her coming to her senses while on the machine. Now that Julieta is in a relatively more stable position, the doctors are shifting their energy into figuring out what caused this and how to treat her condition better.
We will continue to provide updates for you as we continue to know more about her condition and her course of treatment.
In the meantime, as a family would like to humbly ask for your thoughts and prayers during this challenging situation. We are shocked and devastated, but we are also incredibly determined to do anything in our power to help her get back to being the sweet and loving girl she is.
