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Jackson Miracle Stories
Jackson Miracle Stories
Your dollars at work.
Sheli Cataleya Gutierrez
Sheli Cataleya Gutierrez was 1 when she arrived at Holtz Children’s emergency room, where she presented with acute respiratory symptoms. During the visit, an echocardiogram showed a severely dilated left atrium.
A month later, in January of 2023, Paolo Rusconi, MD, director of pediatric heart failure and transplant at the Miami Transplant Institute, and director of the Holtz Children’s pediatric cardiac intensive care unit, performed another echocardiogram. Sheli was then diagnosed with restrictive cardiomyopathy – a rare condition that causes the chambers of the heart to stiffen, become enlarged, and fail to relax properly, affecting its overall functionality.
During an evaluation in an outpatient cardiac clinic appointment on her second birthday, Sheli’s heart suddenly stopped beating. She then came down with rhinovirus and pneumonia, landing her back in the hospital. While admitted, Sheli underwent a second cardiac arrest. It took her care team more than an hour to resuscitate her, and resulted in Sheli being moved up on the heart transplant list.
Once she was resuscitated, Sheli was placed on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenator, or ECMO, which takes over the function of the heart and lungs when the organs can no longer support themselves. Rather than using standard ECMO cannulas, the team used Berlin Heart cannulas, allowing Sheli to remain mobile and alert.
For the first time in Holtz Children’s history, a pediatric patient on ECMO was able to be awake, active, and mouth-fed rather than sedated.
After 40 days on ECMO, Sheli’s parents received the call that a heart donor had been found.
Now, Sheli has recovered quickly and rang in her third birthday with a new lease on life.
“This little girl is meant for something very big because she’s a little warrior,” said Maylene Gonzalez, surgery coordinator for pediatric cardiac transplant at Holtz Children’s. “The fact that she tolerated ECMO for such a long time and has no lingering major effects to her health is incredible.”
Jeff and Sara Gammons
Florida storm chaser receives life-saving kidney transplant from wife at Miami Transplant Institute
For Jeffery Gammons, 50, chasing storms and capturing them on camera was his therapy for more than 30 years. However, when his kidney health began to decline, the thrill of the chase was put on hold.
In the early 2000’s, Jeff developed a kidney infection that landed him in the hospital, which is when he discovered he was living with only 30 percent kidney function.
By 2004, his kidneys completely failed. He needed dialysis, and eventually a kidney transplant, to survive.
On April 12, 2009, Jeff received his first transplant at the Miami Transplant Institute (MTI), an affiliation between Jackson Health System and UHealth – University of Miami Health System.
“I got 13 years out of that kidney,” he said. “I was healthy that entire time; I was blessed with my son, and found my wife, Sara, with that transplant. Life was good for me.”
Nevertheless, in 2020, Jeff started to experience issues with the transplanted kidney. By the end of 2022, he started planning for another transplant.
In April 2023, Jeff went to MTI to begin his initial evaluation. His wife, Sara, applied to be his donor. To their surprise, Sara was a perfect match.
After several months of tests and preparation, the Gammons received the call they were waiting for – the transplant procedure was scheduled for September 19, 2023.
Both surgeries were successful, and after a few days in the hospital, they were discharged with minimal pain.
“There’s a huge weight that’s been lifted. We have our life back,” Sara said.
“I owe it all to Sara, and the teams at Jackson and at MTI, for this second chance at life,” Jeff said.
Carlos Andres Escobar
44-year-old Hialeah man who suffered a life-threatening heart attack saved at Jackson West Medical Center
After a lifetime of smoking cigarettes, Carlos Andres Escobar, 44, experienced a nightmare scenario.
In the late morning hours on March 16, Escobar started to feel chest pain, but didn’t think much of it. Four hours later, the pain intensified and spread from his chest to his arms. In that moment, Escobar knew he was suffering from a heart attack.
His family rushed the Hialeah native to the emergency room at Jackson West Medical Center. Fortunately, just 10 days prior to Escobar’s life-altering heart attack, Jackson West’s team was fully equipped to stabilize and treat him, due to their latest ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) accreditation.
The team immediately stabilized Escobar, and rushed him to the catheterization lab to perform an emergency cardiac catheterization to examine his heart. The procedure led to the cardiac team placing a stent – a small mesh tube used to hold open weakened or narrowed blood vessels in the heart– to establish proper blood flow.
After an hour-long procedure, Escobar’s pain was almost entirely gone, and he felt strong and energized. He spent one day in Jackson West’s intensive care unit for observation, and two days on a regular floor, before going home with minimal pain.
Today, Escobar feels better than ever. He has returned to work, is following a strict diet, and has promised to quit smoking so he can enjoy more healthy years with his wife and daughter. He credits the team at Jackson West for their life-saving care.
“My family and I are extremely grateful to the teams at Jackson West for all of their attention,” Escobar said. “They kept me informed and calm. I knew I was in the best hands. They saved my life.”
Doug Allen
Two cardiac arrests left Florida Keys man almost paralyzed, saved at Ryder Trauma at Jackson South and Lynn Rehabilitation Center
Doug Allen, 69, loved playing music. When he was not performing at different gigs across the Florida Keys, he and his wife, Sheila Allen, lived a quiet life on the beach with their dog.
Shortly after returning from a walk with his dog, Allen started feeling pain in his chest.
As emergency medical services was transporting him to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson South, he suffered a cardiac arrest. Moments after arriving at Ryder Trauma, his heart started beating again. However, he suffered a second cardiac arrest.
Allen was diagnosed with an aortic dissection, a tear in the inner layer of the aorta – the main artery that delivers blood from the heart to the body. He was then rushed to the catheterization lab for an emergency stent insertion to repair the tear.
Because of the aortic dissection, Allen also suffered from a spinal stroke, causing him to lose all function in his spinal cord nerves, which led to the loss of feeling in his legs.
He was later transferred to Christine E. Lynn Rehabilitation Center for The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at UHealth/Jackson Memorial.
While mobility was Allen’s biggest challenge, he drastically improved after just one week of physical and occupational therapy.
After two weeks of hard work, Allen progressed from walking short distances to tolerating longer distances with less assistance. He also reached a major milestone – just one day before discharge, he climbed up and down 22 steps – a task that was nearly impossible for him to do.
He’s grateful to the entire Jackson medical teams for saving his life, and giving him the chance to live it at its full potential.
“Everyone was so professional and inspiring,” Allen said. “They made you feel like you could talk to them and trust them – it was excellent care the entire time.”
Susan Aguirre and Aniah Carrazana
Susan Aguirre, 37, had one goal – to give her two-year-old daughter a sibling to grow up with. She was weary about getting pregnant again, but jumped into the process since her first pregnancy went so well. During her 10-week ultrasound, however, her joy quickly turned to worry.
Anna Sfakianaki, MD, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at The Women’s Hospital at Jackson Memorial, discovered a tumor growing on the baby’s spine. She suspected it could be spina bifida, a birth defect where the spine fails to develop properly. This meant Aguirre’s baby might be born with physical and intellectual disabilities.
After the discovery, she was referred to Rodrigo Ruano, MD, PhD, director of the UHealth Jackson Fetal Care Center and division chief of UHealth Jackson Maternal-Fetal Medicine, who ruled out spina bifida, but confirmed a rare tumor on the baby’s tailbone called a sacrococcygeal teratoma.
Dr. Ruano gave Aguirre and her family the option to do in utero surgery to remove the tumor, laser the vessel that was feeding the tumor in order to stop its growth, or closely monitor the fetal cardiac function with fetal echocardiograms (echo) and ultrasound exams. They decided to monitor the baby closely and plan a delivery via Cesarean section at 30 weeks.
At 28 weeks, the fetal echo showed the baby’s right heart ventricle was beating harder than the left ventricle. Dr. Ruano and the pediatric surgery and NICU teams decided to change the plan from elective C-section to ex-utero intrapartum treatment (EXIT) surgery in order to minimize potential trauma to the tumor.
On September 26, 2023, Anaiah Carrazana was born and safely transferred to the NICU without rupturing the tumor.
“Honestly, I feel like God did his work through Dr. Ruano. He was so amazing and not only was wonderful because he saved my baby’s life, but he also gave me confidence and comfort the entire way through,” Aguirre said.