Lourdes awaits surgery at Shriners Hospital

Lourdes is also a stateside patient in the COTA program. Hosted by Lisa and Bobby in western Kentucky, Lourdes is delighted with her foster care placement. While she awaits her surgical date at Shriners in Lexington, KY, Lourdes has benefited from donated dental and orthodontic care, healthcare and updated immunizations.

Kimberly after six weeks in foster care

Kimberly's newest photos shows the effects of the loving and attentive care of Linda and Alan as they nurture her to health. Kimberly's surgery is scheduled for mid-May, thanks to the very diligent efforts of COTA friend April Hayman in Chattanooga, TN. April has the determination that it takes to network donated surgery for a COTA patient-no small task with hospital budget cuts!

Mother Marta in Guatemala is shown in Kimberly's crib in Danville, KY. Marta is kept informed of Kimberly's progress with the help of COTA volunteer Aida de Carcamo in Guatemala, who calls and keeps in touch with each family that has a child in our program. It truly "takes a village" to restore health to each of our COTA patients.

Kimberly's journey to health

Kimberly, is our newest stateside patient. She was first seen by COTA nurses and doctors in Tiquisate, Guatemala on January 19th of this year, when she was in a near starvation state. Her malnutrition was caused by her inability to breastfeed due to her cleft lip and palate. Kimberly's mother was not able to afford the infant formula to keep her baby nourished. COTA donated many cans of formula for this baby but she developed diarrhea and dropped her weight to under 5 lbs.

Three weeks later, the paperwork was complete and Kimberly arrived in KY thanks to the assistance of her American Ambassadors escort arranged for us by Margaret Whitehead. Kimberly is currently being hosted by Linda and Alan, one of our dedicated host families. She has already gained two pounds! Surgical correction of her cleft lip is scheduled for May.