My name is Vanessa Orozco. My sister and I were pretty much raised here in this little town of Sahuarita, in Arizona. My sister Yvette Stephenson “Orozco” has always been called “A Miracle Baby.” She was born with a heart defect called tricuspid valve atresia. She had her first open-heart surgery when she was 3 years old. I just remember this tiny little thing with all these machines hooked up to her and this big cut that was covered in staples from the top of her chest down to just above her belly button. As a kid, I never understood why her? Why would God do this to my baby sister? My sister has gone through multiple surgeries throughout her whole life. I have seen my mom and dad go through the most pain a parent can go through. They have had to make some of the most difficult, most important, and at times almost impossible decisions they have ever had to make for my sister. The decisions they made were life and death decisions. They were Hail Mary decisions; they were “there’s a chance but it’s also gonna take a miracle” kind of choices. My parents have fought just as hard as my sister has fought. It is very difficult to watch your parents go through something like this for years, seeing the pain, the worries, and the tears on their faces. My sister was only given to the age of 21 to live. Doctors said she would need a heart transplant by then. My amazing miracle sister made it through her twenties, still in and out of hospitals, but she got married and adopted a child who is now turning 16 years old. When my sister hit her mid-30s, she started having more and more complications. It started to limit her a lot on what she could do. Walking became difficult; she had to be put on oxygen. Last year, when she turned 36, she started having more frequent visits to the hospital, mostly by ambulance in that year. She coded on us twice. She fought with insurance and was declined all through Arizona for a heart transplant due to the rarity of her heart. Doctors were afraid to do a transplant. She was finally given a chance at Stanford Hospital at age 37 in August 2025. She had two weeks of testing at Stanford Hospital. As she was returning home, she received a phone call from the liver doctor saying she needed a liver. We were afraid it was gonna come to her needing the liver too due to her heart medication. What helps one kills another. About two hours later, she received the call about the heart. The heart doctor said she was sorry to inform her, but after all her tests, unfortunately, her heart was not going to make it one more year. We all knew that this day was going to come, but in honesty, you are truly never really prepared. She wasn’t given much time to pack as they wanted her back in the hospital to be put on the donor list by Monday morning on September 15. She had two weeks to pack up her life and make the hardest decisions and arrangements. My sister documented some of her journey on her Facebook page as she prepared for her new heart and liver journey. By her third night there (Wednesday), she had already gotten COVID in the hospital. They tested the whole family to make sure we did not come with COVID, but everyone was cleared except for my sister. On Thursday, I received a call from my friend Sharon with devastating news that her daughter Lynsey, age 31, had passed away due to an asthma attack. She left behind a daughter, age 10, Marleigh Rose. Sharon said her daughter had read my sister’s article about being approved for a heart and liver transplant. I don’t know how she could have even thought about my sister in her time of pain and suffering, but she did. She called to tell me that her daughter was a donor and that she would like to see if my sister was a match. Like I said previously, my sister is a very unique case. Her heart never grew with her, so her chest cavity has to be small. Also, she has a rare blood type, which is why doctors wanted to get her in quickly because of her rarity; it may take longer for a donor. I sent Sharon all the info for Stanford Hospital and for my sister with fingers crossed and praying hands. Saturday morning, I got a call from my mom at work. She was crying, but happy crying. She doesn’t know how a miracle happened. Stanford will not give her details about the donor, but they came in and said they had a donor and they were going to start prepping her. Sharon called me a little bit after that to confirm that her daughter was a match for my sister. Another amazing miracle in the little town that we live in. Sharon’s daughter’s heart will get to go in my sister’s heart. When my sister did her first interview for the Green Valley News about her being approved for her heart and liver transplant, she was asked a question that I thought was uncomfortable and probably a very hard question to answer, and I wasn’t even the person who needed a heart. They asked my sister, “How do you feel that someone has to die in order for you to live?” Her response was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. Her response was, “It’s kind of a sad but beautiful thing at the same time.” My sister received a heart and liver transplant one week after being admitted and on the donor list. On September 22 at night, she went into surgery. My sister is the biggest fighter right now and the strongest person I know. Since her surgery, she has been in and out of ICU. Every complication that a transplant could run into, she has. She got a blood clot in her brain and had a stroke. She’s paralyzed on her left side. She got an infection in her blood. She got pneumonia. She got an infection in her intestines. She has pockets of infection in her stomach. She had blood clots all through her body. She has a clot in her heart. Once again, the miracle baby is still fighting. Through this journey, I have been posting updates on Facebook. There are so many prayers, so many people that don’t even know her that are praying for her. I believe this is why she still continues to fight. This is why she has made it through everything. She is slowly doing physical therapy, trying to regain movement on her left side. She is slowly getting the strength to be able to stand. She still cannot eat. She still does not have a feeding tube due to the infection in her stomach, which may take a while to heal. My parents gave up everything to go up there and be with her day and night. My mom worked as a caregiver. My dad worked for the Sahuarita School and was in charge of getting the baseball, softball, and football fields ready for game days. My dad recently just quit his job. He used all his PTO and sick time that he had to get through as long as he could, and then his amazing employees from the school even donated their hours to help them, which meant a lot and helped. We were told a few days ago that my sister still has a really long way to go and that we’re still looking at a full year in California. My parents took out a loan to help them, but it’s very difficult, very expensive, and they have run out of funds. They live month-to-month in a different hotel. These hotels range from $3,000 to $4,000 a month. The hotel does not let you stay there for more than a month, so every month they are switching hotels. Some of them have now started charging them for each car. They tried to get an apartment, but unfortunately, they no longer have the income to be able to rent an apartment. They reached out to the hospital for help but constantly just get the runaround, always making excuses. We were supposed to get discounts at the hotels because she was a heart and liver transplant patient, but unfortunately, no hotels are living up to that. My parents are running out of funds. I don’t want them to lose everything they worked so hard for. My parents, their whole life, have done nothing but give, give, give, so now I’m asking for help. I’m asking to help fund my parents. I’m asking to help secure them a place to stay for the remaining year that my sister will be down there. They have been jumping from hotel to hotel since September 15, 2025. They have been eating fast food and hospital food since September. Not all hotels come with stoves, and those that do are more expensive. My parents have gone through so much with my sister, and I know they would do it all over again. If I can take just this one burden from them so they don’t have to worry about how or where their next stay is going to be or how they can pay for it. Please, every $1 helps and every prayer.