Supporting Samantha - Please Read!

Samanthas Story:

"For 17 years I raised a beautiful, perfect and healthy baby girl. In May of 2021, everything changed. She

started off sounding congested. She maybe had a cold or her allergies were acting up. After two days of

her not feeling better, we decided to go to the emergency room. When we arrived, she started

complaining of tightness in her chest and her breathing was so labored. They checked her oxygen right

away and it ended up being extremely low. She was rushed to a local hospital where she was admitted

into the P-ICU. We spent several days there and when she was released to go home, the doctor told her

that he was not sure what caused the issue and that once it clears up, we may never know what

happened.

My baby, Eden Jolynn Centeno, passed away 3 years later June 5.2023. That doctor, he was right, we

never found out what was wrong with her, not until she passed away.

Eden spent 3 years in hell, and I tried to be strong and vigilant, always by her side. I stopped working to

be with her 100 percent of the time. We were living off my husband’s income only, bills piled way up,

the house and chores fell by the wayside, there was just no time to keep up with anything. Eden started

spending 2 to 3 weeks a month in the hospital and I was determined to be by her side. When she was

home, she was always so tired from all the steroids and infusions they were treating this “unknown”

illness with that she spent all her time in bed. She was seeing so many specialists and no one could tell

us why she was unable to keep her blood oxygenated, why her oxygen saturation was always in the 40s,

50s, and 60s. They did test after test, cat scans, blood work, biopsies, I thought they were doing it all.

In May 2023, Edi started to retain water and was losing her appetite. I called the doctors over and over

for guidance to which I was always told “if she isn't feeling good take her to the ER.” The problem with

that is that it was getting harder and harder to make her go because she was miserable there. There was

never any new news, no updates on her condition, doctors just kept pumping her full of steroids. In the

month of May, we have a lot going on. My birthday, Eden’s youngest brother’s birthday, her dad’s and

mine anniversary, and Mother’s Day. I could tell that she needed to go to the hospital, but she just

wanted to wait until everything had passed. Finally in June she knew she felt worse than normal, her

body had changed dramatically, and we were finally able to convince her that we should go to the

hospital so that we could get home faster. She hated being there. She wanted to be home. When we

arrived at the hospital, she was in such good spirits. Nothing seemed different than any of the previous

times. We waited for a room, it took forever, as usual, but when we finally got moved to a private room,

we were both relieved. When we got to the room, she had some sort of episode, they booted me out,

called in a team of doctors and nurses and I waited in the lobby for what felt like eternity before they

came and got me. The doctors faces when they looked at me were ones of heartbreak and sorrow, and I

knew something was wrong. They told me that they had found something they had not previously seen.

They said they found a hole in her heart where it connected to her lungs. This is why she could not keep

her blood oxygenated and explained what they kept seeing in her lungs. The un-oxygenated and

oxygenated blood were mixing in her lungs and on top of that with the hole, there was not enough

pressure in her lungs to push her oxygenated blood throughout her body. She passed away later that

night at 11:07pm. I was with her. For that I am grateful. She was not alone. I was laying next to her and I

was holding her hand.

It’s been hard for us all to recover from such a loss. I am currently seeking help with depression and

anxiety and have been unable to return to the 911 world I came from. I was a 911 dispatcher for police,

fire and EMS for over 20 years. I worked with 2 different departments and also with San Antonio Air Life.

Maybe emergency services isn't for me anymore and ll have to start looking into another profession

soon but at this time, her loss has done more to change my body, mind and spirit than I can handle."

Samantha and her family are in need of a roof, and confided in Pedro, a Team Lead at Design Roofing & General Contractors, LLC that they are unable to afford their portion of the cost; and our hope in in combination to Design Cares, Non-Profit Charity that we can help raise this for her and take 1 thing off her plate of worries allow her to start healing.

Anything helps!