Heart Patient to Recover in Santa Clarita
A 16-year-old Nicaraguan girl who was flown to Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks last week for open-heart surgery will live with foster parents in Santa Clarita during her recovery, hospital officials said.
Birgit Neumann, a spokeswomen for lead surgeon Mohammad Gharavi, said Sara Maria Garcia’s mitral valve replacement is working smoothly and she most likely will return home to Nicaragua in five to six weeks.
Sara was released Wednesday to foster parents set up by Healing the Children, a child advocacy and medical group. Sara was discovered in February after the group visited her country. The names of the foster parents were not released.
The Thousand Oaks medical center, doctors and a heart valve manufacturer underwrote the entire cost of the operation, estimated at $45,000.
Sara was not shy about thanking the people who helped her. She wrote a thank-you note to Gharavi, saying, “My heart belongs to you. Thank you, Sara.”
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