15th birthday celebrations return to Mexico’s Children’s Hospital

Carolina Gomez Mena

The newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, August 10, 2024, p. 13

Yesterday’s appointment at the hospital had a different tone. They did not attend a medical procedure, but to have fun, share and celebrate that life goes on. For several hours, 10 teenagers (seven girls and three boys) forgot that they are patients at the Federico Gómez Children’s Hospital of Mexico (HIMFG), of the Ministry of Health, and celebrated their 15th birthday accompanied by their families.

They arrived at the hospital early in the morning, along with their mothers, to be groomed for the occasion. Now the focus was on their outfits, makeup and hairdos.

Karla Valeria has spent many of her birthdays hospitalized at HIMFG due to her acute lymphoblastic leukemia (blood cancer), but none like yesterday.

I’m very excited; I didn’t imagine my 15th birthday would be like this, I was just thinking about a family meal. I like my dress (coral color)as well as her tennis shoes decorated for the party, she told The Day.

Elizabeth Campos, her mother, has tears in her eyes, because I thought I wouldn’t be able to celebrate my 15th birthdayand in the last year Karla Valeria has been hospitalized many times, He became very ill and was in intensive care..

Carlos Emilio, who is being treated for subaortic valve stenosis and has had four heart surgeries, the first at two and a half years of age, also celebrated his 15th birthday yesterday.

Dressed in a black suit, with a red bow, handkerchief and belt, he mentioned being very excited for the celebration and said that his illness has not prevented him from doing the things he likes, only when he has had crises have the limitations come.

Magdalena García, her mother, said excitedly: I feel very proud of my little boy, because he wanted a celebration and we couldn’t give it to him..

Cristian Uriel turned 15 last February and since he was born he has had multiple health complications, one of the latest being lung cancer, But we are already leaving. Despite these circumstances, he is a happy boy and said that “it feels strange, I never thought I would be 15 years old like this. On his birthday There was no chance to celebrate, so now I’m happy.

Alexa was another of the guests, looking radiant in her long blue dress and her bun hairstyle. She has lupus, a disease that began three years ago, and for that reason she is treated at the HIMFG, where she has to attend two or three times a week. It was not in my plans to celebrate my 15th birthday, on my birthday, at my house, they made me a small cake and nothing else.he said.

Pause since 2020 due to the pandemic

Mitzi Chávez, president of the Honorable Volunteer Corps of HIMFG, explained that, after being suspended for four years due to the pandemic, the commemoration of 15 years at the hospital was resumed and said that it has been carried out since 2012.

The civil association to which she belongs is responsible for managing donations in kind to be able to hold the party: the banquet, the musical group, tables, chairs, balloon art, dresses and suits, and personalized cakes for each of the guests of honor.

They see the hospital as a complicated and difficult place because of so many procedures, and this takes them out of the ordinary here, we give them joy.

Adrián Chávez López, director of HIMFG, indicated that these events seek to help children achieve their milestones, not only therapeutic, but also social, and that despite the adversity of having a disease as serious as cancer, what is worth celebrating is celebrated.”

The intention is to make the hospital more and more humane and to ensure that children do not lose their social abilities just because they are enrolled in a treatment protocol and added that the hospital serves more than 20 thousand infants a year.