Kayla Mendoza

In the words of Kayla’s father: Peter

I guess I should start with the first time we went to children’s hospital. Our eldest son, Rene, started developing pepaloma in the throat. It got so bad at one point his voice was almost to a whisper. After several unsuccessful surgeries at a local hospital, Rene was sent to CHLA where he had surgeries every six months for several years. Last year, Rene had his last surgery and yells like a normal 12-year-old.

In December of 2007, Brenda and I had a son by the name of Sean who had some blood abnormalities. Because of our confidence at Children’s Hospital, we requested he be transferred there. Within a day, he was air lifted there. He was treated by Dr. Paquete and the kind nurses in the NICCU. Unfortunately, Sean passed away after 13 days from Neonatal Hemochromatosis.

Several doctors assisted us with finding medicine so our next child would not be diagnosed with the same thing. We were able to find a doctor in Chicago that found a drug that Brenda would have to take weekly from week 14 to 36 of her pregnancy.

Of course, we were still scared of what would happen. During the summer of 2010, Brenda endured weekend infusions of IVIG.

Kayla was born October 14, 2010. She still had some abnormal blood enzymes. With the kind help of a social worker named Glenda, we were able to get Kayla admitted to CHLA. Immediately, the doctors began examining her and diagnosing her. Within the first day of being there, she had a blood exchange and received a treatment of IVIG. After several more days of tests, Kayla was diagnosed a “cured neonotal hemochromatosis survivor.”

Kayla has gone back to CHLA for a six-month follow up with no abnormalities. She turned one in October!