Julieta’s Story

Site created on May 5, 2020



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.

Newest Update

Happy Thanksgiving- Julieta

Journal entry by Julieta Valdes —

Happy late Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to write a quick note to say how thankful I am. First of all, I am thankful for even being 6 feet above the ground right now. I think I have said this about 1,000 times but everyone really does take life for granted until you almost lose it. Learn from my mistake! I am not only blessed to be alive but also to have my friends and family here as well. I am so happy I got to celebrate life with an amazing dinner and the best people by my side.

I also wanted to give thanks to everyone who has kept up with me and my family, prayed for us, and helped us in a difficult time. I'm sorry I put everyone through this but, what can I say? I guess I just like the attention :) But on a serious note, I am so blessed to be surrounded by such a loving community of people that are so selfless. My family and I wouldn't have been able to get through this without you. 

And lastly, I wanted to say that I am thankful, in a weird way, that I got my sudden cardiac arrest. Even though it all still sucks, I am beyond thankful. I was able to prevent it from possibly happening to my mom, which also has the same heart condition, and now has an ICD because of my incident. I am so thankful that my incident happened when it did because I had the best superheroes next to me, aka my mom and my sister. Words can't describe how grateful I am for all the care I got and for the platform I now have to bring awareness about SCA to other people... and who knows? Maybe I can prevent this from happening to someone else? 

Either way, I wanted to write a short little message to give thanks to everyone! I am extra thankful this year for life, health, friends, family, and for you! 

I hope all of you had a blessed Thanksgiving!

So much love and hugs,

Julieta

 

Read More of the journal titled "Happy Thanksgiving- Julieta"
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