Yee-haw! Dressed in their best country attire, hundreds of current and former patients, family members, hospital staff, and volunteers hitched a horse-drawn carriage to the best party in the west: our annual Hospital Prom. The Hospital School outdid themselves this year, transforming the cafeteria into a Wild West adventure fit for a Hollywood movie set. Among our many honored guests was one of our favorite little cowboys, 9-year-old David, your Summer Scamper Patient Hero for the Pulmonary and Cystic Fibrosis Center.
Aside from that rather convincing mustache, you may recognize his photo—two years ago his sister, Doris, was our previous Patient Hero for the Pulmonary and Cystic Fibrosis Center. In 2014, Doris received her double-lung transplant, but their family’s celebration was cut short when David’s health declined quickly.
“The doctor called me and said, ‘We need to talk.’ And I said, ‘Don’t worry me,’” recalls David’s mom, Corina. “And then the doctor said, ‘Yes, we need to worry.’”
David had a collapsed lung. He had to be on oxygen 24/7, and his activity was extremely limited. Just like his sister, he too would need a double-lung transplant.
In the United States, there are only about 40-50 pediatric lung transplants per year, and only about three per year at our hospital. The wait for a donor match could take many months. Of course, the Romero family knew this—they had waited an entire year before Doris’s transplant. But after just two months on the transplant waiting list, David’s family received the call that they had a donor match, and in March David received his new lungs. Within two weeks, David was discharged from our hospital. And now (two months later) he is already back to doing what he loves: playing soccer, joking with his older sisters, and breaking out the dance moves at our Hospital Prom.
“We are so grateful every day,” Corina says. “David is always smiling. He is full of life and full of happiness.”
David is #WhyWeScamper.
Register to run, walk, or volunteer at the 7th annual Summer Scamper on June 25. It’s our biggest community fundraiser of the year and we need your help to give kids like David the best care possible.
Check out the Hospital Prom photo gallery here.