A week from tomorrow (Jan 24th) InterVol is going to have a very special guest visit us.  Ms. Cheryl Ritchie will be coming to Rochester, NY from Belize.  We first met Cheryl on the VMP (Volunteer Medical Professionals) trip to Belize in March 2008.  She walked in to see the cardiologist, Dr. Gerry Gacioch, and looked him straight in the eye and begged him to please help her.  In her hand she carried a CD from Belize City verifying that she had a very debilitating condition called mitral stenosis.

At 32-years-old Cheryl is often short of breath which makes it difficult for a young mother to keep up with her 6 children all under the age of 17.  Mitral stenosis is a narrowing of the mitral valve which limits the amount of blood flow from her heart into her body.  As a child Cheryl had rheumatic fever, an illness easily treated with penicillin and nearly eradicated from the United States since 1950, but a common childhood disease in third world countries.  The rheumatic fever, left untreated led to this condition which is only getting worse.  As the condition is progressing, she only has a few year left for a woman who is otherwise healthy.  In the poor country of Belize her only hope for treatment is to go to Guatemala, but even then she would need a large sum of cash, something difficult to come by.

This is where InterVol and Rochester General come in.  Dr. Gacioch made a promise in March to Cheryl that he would find a way to help her.  And her dream is coming true in a week.  Next Saturday Cheryl, accompanied by her mother, will come to Rochester and have surgery at one of the top heart hospitals in the country.  The entire community is behind her trip and helping her get the treatment she needs.  The hospital is donating all the surgery, physicians time, and equipment needed.  They also have on campus apartments in which Cheryl and her mother will be staying.  Students from The Harley School will stock the cupboards in the apartment and prepare meals for them.  Local nurses are providing winter clothes for these women who have definitely never experienced this cold we've been having.  And the plane tickets have been covered by the Webster Kiwanis Club and the Monroe Country Mites Travel Hockey Team.

So Saturday Cheryl joins us in Rochester.  She will only been in the hospital for a weeks time.  Since she is a beautifully healthy woman, she will make a quick recovery.  After which she will stay in Rochester for 2 additional weeks so she can follow up with the doctors.  And then on February 14th, Valentine's Day, Cheryl outfitted with a new lease on life will return to the loves of her life, her children: Glen, Albert, Christy, Marisa, Clarissa, and Sherilee.

We want to thank everyone who has made this miracle for Cheryl possible!