Desperate Sussex Parents Start GoFundMe To Send Baby Boy To US For Heart Surgery

Wednesday, 11 May 2022 10:44

By Jade McLean

Rafael Silva and Lina Griciute from Crawley, have set up a GoFundMe page in order to raise money to send their baby son Gabriel to Boston in the US for lifesaving surgery.

They say they received the diagnosis of a left ventricle fibroma ( a tumour) on Gabriel's heart in May of last year (2022).

"This came as a complete surprise to us all, nothing was detected throughout pregnancy.

"From that moment our lifes changed in an instant."

Since his diagnosis, Gabriel has had numerous check-ups and medications administered to his tiny body.

"As a mother I was trying to stay strong as I could I did not want to show any sign of weakness.

"I remember one of the Doctors came in and told me it could be weeks, months or years... So just make the most of it and take lots of pictures for memories. His diagnose is sudden infant death.

Hi parents say that at six months old he then developed life-threatening tachycardia arrhythmia which was caused by bronchitis. He has ongoing respiratory infections due to the mass pressing on the airway of the lungs.

His hospital consultant asked his parent's permission to send his MRI scans to Boston to where "some of the best cardiac surgeons in the world" can be found.

Boston Children's Hospital has, they say, quoted them £140,000 for debulk or resection of the ventricular fibroma.

According to the hospital, they have done this operation several times and are confident that they can "drastically improve or even cure our little angel Gabriel".

The parents say they are grateful for any support that you are able to give.