A 6-month-old child from Palm Beach Gardens is recovering at home after undergoing a life-saving heart transplant in Miami last month.
Eliana Mendez became very sick and lethargic in June.
Doctors at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach diagnosed her with a virus called dilated cardiomyopathy, which causes the chambers of the heart to enlarge and weaken.
Eliana was quickly airlifted to Holtz Children's Hospital at Jackson Memorial in Miami where doctors determined a heart transplant was needed.
On Aug. 21, a transplant match was made and the surgery took place.
“She was always smiling, the happiest patient in the ICU,” said mother Abdiel Mendez. “You would have never known she was waiting on a heart transplant.”
Eliana was able to leave the hospital on Wednesday.
Click here if you would like to help the family pay for medical expenses.
