Dear friends, family and Compassionate Supporters.

With pain in my hearth I am sharing the story of Arianna Miza

my niece is a 4 year old girl who lives in Guatemala. She loves to sing and spend time with her family always bringing joy to all of us through her laugh and silly stories about her day. About a year ago she started to suffer from episodes of seizures which became more frequent and severe. Doctors diagnose her with epilepsy due to increase body temperature with unknown source. She was given multiple medications to control her seizures, unfortunately since epilepsy can get triggered by many stressor they continued to happen.

On August 16 she woke up feeling sick and with high temperature, her parents rushed her to the Hospital, during the drive she told her dad there was something wrong as she began to have a seizure, unfortunately the traffic in Guatemala City is crowded and slow so they were stuck in the car for more than 30 minutes.

With no where to go, they waited until an ambulance arrived. Arianna was placed on oxygen but the seizure continued, she was rushed to the hospital where doctors administered medications to stop the seizures but were unsuccessful. After 30 minutes in the Emergency room and multiple doctors working hard to stabilize her.

Arianna had to be placed in a medically induced coma and ventilated in order to save her life. In efforts to help her brain heal as the seizure was longer than 1 hour. Due to the length of the seizure, the extent and damage to her brain is still unknown. Arianna is currently being treated for a infectious thrombus that has affected her hearth. She requires many weeks of IV antibiotics and anticoagulant treatment at the hospital. In hopes of a full recovery, she will need to be hospitalized for an undetermined period of time. She is in the PICU with 24/7 care.

Arianna’s parents are living every parents worst nightmare, seeing their baby girl in a hospital bed without capacity to communicate. She is being tube fed and everything else administered through IV. Ariana will remain in the intensive care unit. Her mom and dad can only be with her for 15 minutes every 3 hours, but in those 15 minutes mom and dad sing her favorite songs . They also read all family and friends messages and words of encouragement.

Arianna has a lengthy and hard recovery ahead of her and every day is a precious day. Knowing she is still with us and in hope of a full recovery. It has been one week since her hospitalization and even though her improvement is slow, it is definitely a blessing seeing her smile. Knowing that she is recovering; gives us hope that she will be home soon.

We are thankful for the team of Doctors (Neurologist, Cardiologist, Endocrinologist, Geneticists), Nurses, Respiratory Therapist , who are currently assessing and caring for Arianna. As parents we want what is best for our children. We don’t like when our children are ill, and definitely we never want our children to have to spend time in a hospital setting. Although this illness has caused a lot of pain and hearth ache it has also shown the love, care and how important family is. To all friends and strangers that have prayed and shown compassion for Arianna we thank you all.

We can not change what has happened, but we can come together to support Arianna and her family in this darkest of times.

Your donation, no matter how small, will make a profound difference in their lives. Also your help may offer some relief as the navigate though this unimaginable tragedy. If you are unable to donate, we ask that you keep Arianna in your thoughts and prayers and share this fundraiser with your network.

Please consider contributing to this GoFundMe and sharing Arianna’s story with others. Your kindness and generosity will mean the world to Ariana’s family. All funds will go to her medical bills and rehabilitation treatments.

with heartfelt gratitude,

Andrea & Celia (aunties) as well as the entire Miza & Monterroso family.