Season of Sharing helps pay rent before baby undergoes heart surgery

Season of Sharing helps pay rent before baby undergoes heart surgery

Note: Celeste, a family friend of Mario and Maria, translated this interview for the Herald-Tribune.

ARCADIA – Baby Jarel turned 1 year and 1 month old this week. 

He sat on his mother’s knee, chewing on the pacifier that she clipped to his shirt. He wiggled and bounced while his mother held onto him. 

Jarel being at home and in good health is not something his parents could have expected a year ago. The only telltale sign of his past health complications now is a long, thin white scar in the center of his chest. 

But when he was only a few months old, doctors told Mario and Maria their baby may not survive at all. 

Since birth, Jarel has faced health complications. After Maria’s high-risk pregnancy, Jarel was born prematurely at nearly 33 weeks. He spent a week in the neonatal intensive care unit before his parents could take him home.