Marshall County, Ala. (WHNT) – In the weeks leading up to News 19’s Wishes Can’t Wait telethon benefiting Make-A-Wish Alabama, we want to introduce you to just a few of the 78 children in North Alabama waiting for the foundation to grant their wishes.
Estrella wants a pool, not just for herself, but for her nieces and nephews to enjoy too.
“[We can] swim and have fun,” Estrella said.
Right now, they splash around in a small round plastic kiddie pool. She’s asking Make-A-Wish Alabama for an upgrade. Her mom, Maria, said Estrella is always thinking about others. It isn’t surprising, given how quickly the 12-year-old was forced to grow up.
“She’s never had a childhood. She’s always been in the hospital, so she’s never enjoyed what a childhood should be,” her Dad, Efrain, said.
She has been sick since she was just three years old, but at the time, the family did not know what was making her ill.
“[Doctors] would always tell me that she had flu,” Maria said. “A year went by, two years went by, and that’s what they would tell me.”
As Estrella got older, her parents said her health worsened. They said she started having fainting spells on the bus and seizures.
In 2019, they were called to Estrella’s school, and a translator aide told them about UAB Children’s Hospital in Birmingham. They took her there as an emergency.
“They saw that she had a tumor [in her head] and it was very big,” Maria said.
She needed emergency surgery; however, removing the tumor meant taking the child’s pituitary gland with it. That had massive implications.
“She’s going to be on medicine for the rest of her life,” Maria said. “It affects all of the hormones of the body, she’s not going to be able to have kids.”
To make matters worse, a year after the initial surgery, the tumor returned. This time, doctors could only successfully remove part of it.
“If they had cut that part, they told us that she could lose memory or her eyesight,” Maria said. “That little part that stayed in her brain, it overtook other areas of her brain that are more dangerous now.”
She’s almost completely blind in her right eye now. Doctors said to shrink what’s left, she needed radiation, but after some time, she started to have problems with her liver.
She was diagnosed with Fatty Liver. The organ failed quickly. She would need a transplant.
“Her extremities would not like to bend and her eyes were now turning gray,” Efrain said.
She traded radiation for Dialysis while the family waited for a donor.
“Its very sad. I don’t wish this on anybody,” Maria said.
Estrella never lost faith.
“I think God. I am tough,” she said.
After months of waiting and praying, the family received a call.
“I feel like that was the salvation of my daughter,” Maria said.
After that, the family was given a letter. The liver came from a little boy. His family wrote, telling Estrella a little bit about him and what he was like and how he died.
“We are very grateful. We pray that this child is resting in peace and that the parents have peace and God blesses them.”
That family’s sacrifice has given Efrain and Maria three years and counting with Estrella.
“She is very strong,” Maria said.
Through the transplant, they were connected with Make-A-Wish Alabama. When Estrella said she wanted a pool, the family knew exactly where it should be.
“We’re thinking in the front yard because we can watch them from [the kitchen],” Maria said.
Even as Estrella returns to radiation to treat what’s left of her tumor, in between treatments, her family said she’ll be busy as the best Aunt to the little ones she loves. Efrain and Maria don’t want to miss a single moment.
“I pray that God allows her to live a lot of years with us.”
If you’re interested in helping Make-A-Wish Alabama grant wishes like Estrella’s, you can donate to News 19’s ‘Wishes Can’t Wait’ telethon right now! Click here.
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