Insurance Reportedly Won’t Cover Cost to Transfer Toddler Home

Dark scars like laces on a football run the length of 2 1/2-year-old Adam Maldanado’s tiny chest, while a tangle of tubes twists its way across his body, taped into place over tender skin. Adam lies in his hospital bed, medicated and on a ventilator, surrounded by beeping devices that keep him alive. He is 3,000 miles from his Lititz home.

When parents Leigh and Jerry Maldonado flew to California in October so that their 2 ½ year old son, Adam, could undergo a special heart surgery performed only at Stanford, they never dreamed that they would get stranded there.

“The surgery went great,” said Leigh of the October procedure, “but 36 hours into his recovery his lung collapsed and he went into cardiac arrest.” What was supposed to be a one-week stay has turned into two months, and Adam has battled for his life in the process.

Now, Adam and his mom will need to stay through February, as their insurance will not cover the magnitude of medical transfer he would require to come home to Pennsylvania.  So the family, with mounting bills and more travel expenses, will once again be separated as Jerry returns to his job in Lititz.

Just several hours late after his birth, nurses noticed Adam had turned blue. Adam was diagnosed with a congenital heart condition, Tetralogy of Fallot, or ToF, a combination of four defects affecting the flow of blood to the heart and lungs.

He underwent his first open heart surgery at only four days old.

He’s had multiple operations and procedures since including two additional open heart surgeries. His parents were told that he would require a heart and double lung transplant unless he underwent a procedure to preserve his heart function. He was doing reasonably well, so his parents decided to bring him to Stanford for the surgery.

But things did not go according to plan. For 50 days his parents were not allowed to hold him.

“It was amazing to be able to hold him again,” said Jerry. “It felt like the day one when he was born.”

The Maldanados have been off from work without pay since October—Jerry from his production job at Wilbur Chocolate and Leigh from her position as a school bus driver for Manheim Township. They have had to raise funds to cover the costs of travel and to pay their bills.

“We’re getting through by the kindness and generosity of people,” said Jerry. “It’s been tough but times when I thought we’d lose the car, or the home, I just said ‘God will provide one way or another,’ and He has.”

Anyone can donate to assist the family with their needs by clicking through to the “A-Man’s Got Heart Fund” fundraising page set up by the family on GoFundMe to receive donations to cover their travel and other expenses. Since LititzDailyNews.com first published their story yesterday, an additional $900 has been donated. So far, they have only raised $7,343 towards a goal $10,000.

For now, they are living at the Ronald McDonald house near the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital where Adam fights a daily battle for survival. It’s a good day when he sits up to play.

Soon Jerry will return to Lititz for a third time since Adam’s surgery, but his return to work at Wilbur will bring yet another challenge.

“Jerry works third shift, so we’re not sure who’s going to watch the baby,” said Leigh of the couple’s younger son, Cole.

They hope Adam’s condition improves enough that he can be flown from Stanford to the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania via a medical flight. Surgeons at Stanford reportedly don’t want him to leave.

Jerry asked that people pray “for complete healing over [Adam’s] whole body, that his lungs would fully recover and be infection free, for finances to be able stay together as a family, not be 3,000 miles apart,” he said.

The Maldanados post updates to over 4,000 supporters on the “A Man’s Got Heart” Facebook page. The family is seeing prayers answered, although sometimes not as quickly as they would like.

“He’s slowly getting better,” said Jerry today, noting that his son is awake more and becoming less ventilator-dependent.

“He’s going to require a lot of PT and OT,” said Jerry. “He’s pretty stiff, and he’s going to need to learn to walk all over again.”

Those wishing to send a card to the Maldonados can do so online through the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital card portal to the family, or by regular mail to Ronald McDonald House, 520 Sand Hill Rd., Palo Alto, CA 94304,  Attn: Maldonado M308.

The Maldonados are the second of LititzDailyNews.com’s “12 Families of Christmas.” We are telling the stories of Lititz families in need of community support this holiday season and beyond. The series has also been called our “12 Families Struggling.” Please like our Facebook page to receive stories in your news feed. If you have a family that you know is in need, please contact us at [email protected].

Lynn Rebuck writes about families and faith for LititzDailyNews.com. She welcomes your comments and questions to [email protected].