After Being Hospital Bound for Three Straight Months, Congenital Heart Patient at Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach Goes Home In Style

Mayra waves good-bye to Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach with Joetta Wallace, NP, manager, Palliative Care Program, Monica Malfa, RN, Wendy Andreu, RN, Karla Serrano, RN, Jenelle Baruth, RN, and her sons Chad and Blake Baruth.

LONG BEACH, Calif. – August 31, 2010 – It has been a life long struggle for Mayra Escobar, 11, who has battled congenital heart and lung defects since birth and has been in and out of the hospital her entire life. She has gone through numerous surgeries and is now on the list to have a heart and lung transplant. Most recently, Mayra has been in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach since the end of May, more than three months.

While intensive care doctors and nurses have always been in her life, it is really Mayra who has impacted them. The intensive care team filled the halls of the PICU at Miller Children’s with cake, balloons, smiles and laughter because patient Mayra was going home.

“She brings such joy to the unit,“ says Jenelle Baruth, RN, who came to the unit on her day off to say goodbye. “Mayra is so inspiring to all of us. She would wear dress up clothes everyday and was always outside her room coloring with a smile on her face. We will miss her.”

Mayra’s one request upon leaving the hospital: she wanted to ride home in a limo like the true superstar she is; and Miller Children’s leading Supportive/Palliative Program made that happen.

Supportive/palliative care is unique — and different from Hospice — in that the program begins at diagnosis and is a part of the care plan, whether the child is at home or in the hospital, throughout cure or bereavement. It is designed to improve the quality of life for a child with a chronic or serious illness by addressing a patient’s needs for comfort through a variety of resources. The Palliative Care team worked with Camp Dream Street to ensure Mayra ended her hospitalization, in style.