Luis, Slate and Maruca Castro Aleman SlateandLuis

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting and please scroll ALL THE WAY DOWN this page to the "SHOW YOUR SUPPORT" section and click the "WAYS TO HELP" link to see how you can help.  Prayers are what they need most but if you can help financially, please Venmo a donation to them @Acrluis86 or through PayPal by searching Sydney Aleman or slateroots@aim.com.  You can also send donations to the family through their Go Fund Me account.  Any donations to CaringBridge will go to CaringBridge.org for providing this website as a place for the family to provide updates to friends and family.

Slate and Luis have been expecting their first baby on May 9, a baby girl named Maruca, which in Hebrew means "beloved, wished for child". Slate had not been feeling well since Sunday, March 31, but she thought it was just end of pregnancy discomfort. When she went to her OB on Wednesday, April 3, she measured at 39 weeks when she should have measured at only 35 weeks. Her doctor immediately sent her over for an emergency ultrasound which showed that she had an excessive amount of amniotic fluid and the baby, as a result, had fluid around her lungs. Slate was admitted to the labor and delivery floor in St. Thomas that same day but after her OB and the high risk OB discussed Slate's condition and reviewed another ultrasound, they decided it was best for Slate, Luis and Baby Ru to be taken by air ambulance to Ft. Lauderdale to deliver the baby.  The Browder Health Medical Center in Ft. Lauderdale has the advanced medical care the baby would need. Since she had so much fluid around her lungs in utero, there would likely be complications once she was delivered. Obviously none of this was planned and was pretty shocking for Slate and Luis. Although the staff at Schneider Regional Medical Center had been amazing to them and they really had their hopes set on delivering there in St. Thomas, Baby Ru had other plans. They said Baby Ru is already calling all the shots! 😦 We all began praying for Slate's well being as well as Baby Ru's after delivery.  They left St. Thomas by air ambulance and headed to Ft. Lauderdale shortly after midnight Wednesday night.

Although they had a savings plan for Ru's arrival, it was cut short by 4 weeks and the unexpected expenses of being off island for a month, the extended hospital stay expenses for Baby Ru, and the expense of having to pay for travel back home are adding up!  Slate and Luis need to focus their attention on Slate's healing and on their precious baby girl and her care without having to worry about the financial stress her unexpected early arrival must have created for them.  Please visit the "Ways To Help" section for ways you can help to support them during this exciting but stressful time.  Thank you for your help!