Support for Sofia Montoya & family

My name is Julia and my daughter Mia (pictured above with Sofia in the hospital) is one of Sofia's best friends at Farallone View Elementary School. This week, I, along with many others in our community have wept tears of sadness, worry, hope and relief.

5 days ago Sofia unexpectedly collapsed and become unresponsive during lunch recess at school. After receiving life saving CPR at school she was life flighted to Stanford's Lucil Packard Children's Hospital. Her heart stopped twice on the way to the hospital and she was described as lifeless on several occassions. She was admitted to the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) where they initially had little hope that she would survive, and was kept heavily sedated as the doctors did tests to find out what had happened and worked to stabilize her. Thankfully after 48 hours they were able to wean her off her meds and after 3 days they removed the ventilator tube so she could breathe on her own. 

Sofia has been diagnosed with Long QT syndrome, a heart condition that can lead to sudden cardiac arrest which more often than not results in loss of life.
She has been moved to the pediatric cardiac floor of the hospital as she undergoes OT, PT, and speech therapy whilst waiting for surgery on Tuesday for an IED to be implanted. She has some temporary memory loss and motor skills issues, but we are hopeful that she will make a full recovery.

Sofia may have also saved her 4 year old sister Gabby's life, as tests on all family members revealed that Gabby also has the same heart condition, though not as pronounced, and will start taking medication to help prevent the same thing happening to her.

We finally got the Montoya Family's blessing to set up a GoFundMe to help them raise money to cover Sofia's large medical deductible and other medical related expenses as Sofia & Gabby go through surgery and treatment to prevent this from happening again.
Any additional money raised would be put towards establishing a trust fund to provide local schools with defibrillators (the paramedics had to shock Sofia's heart as soon as they arrived at the school), annual CPR training & re-certification for all teachers, aides, and support staff, and, if possible, heart screenings for local children.

Sofia and her family have been overwhelmed by the love and support of their local community throughout this ordeal, many of whom have asked how they can help. This money would immediately help cover their costs and hopefully ensure that future situations like theirs would have as positive of an outcome.

I moved to this community because I was looking for a village to support my family, and this week reinforced that very decision, as I watched everyone surround the Montoya family with everything they could possibly want to help them get through this. Thank you all for what you have done, what you continue to do, and hopefully for what you can do to help Shawna, Daniel, Sofia and Gabby.