Fundraiser for Mirna Barrera

On Sunday, August 25th my beloved sister, Mirna Barrera, unexpectedly passed away. Thankfully she was surrounded by her loved ones.

On Thursday, August 9th, Mirna suffered a stroke while working a graveyard shift. She had been stocking shelves at 3am when a customer found her lying on the floor unconscious and called for help. Unfortunately, it was too late when the paramedics arrived because Mirna had already suffered a hemorrhage in two different parts of her brain. She was rushed to Saint John’s Hospital in Santa Monica and admitted to the ICU due to her delicate condition. Mirna fell into a coma, but she was still alive. 

Knowing that my sister’s life was on the line, I used all of my savings to fly my 71 and 75-year-old parents from Nicaragua. Even though her brain was functioning at the lowest stage of alertness, she opened her eyes for the first time when I told her our parents were on their way to see her. Our parents were able to hold her and talk to her and Mirna would open her eyes and cry. 

We had hoped that she would get better, but after 2 weeks the doctors told us that we had two options – to have her on life support for the rest of her short life or to say our good-byes. 

We had to make the most difficult decision in our lives - to remove her from life support. 

The hospital is now demanding that we find a funeral home for her!  Unfortunately, we are now struggling with unexpected funeral expenses - funeral services in LA are at least $13,000. 

Due to these unexpected costs, we have decided to take the least expensive route and take her back to Nicaragua for $8,000 + $2,000 for travel expenses.  We have been given a week to make these arrangements. 

On behalf of our family, in the most devastating and humbling of circumstances, we have setup this GoFundMe campaign to ask for your support and any donations. We decided to forgo the memorial service to save money, therefore the funds in this campaign will only be used to pay for Mirna’s funeral and travel expenses for my parents and myself.

We thank you from the bottom of our hearts, for taking the time to read and donate.  Please help us share this campaign by sending it to your friends and family.

With gratitude,

Mary and family.