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CNN Live Sunday
California Boy Saves the Life of an Ecuadorian Child
Aired August 26, 2001 - 16:25 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Well, now here's a little story about a little boy who had a big wish for his birthday. Instead of toys or presents, he asked for money -- not money for himself, money to help save the life of a 4-year-old from Ecuador whom he never met. CNN's Thelma Gutierrez introduces us to two kids who pretty much set a good example for grownups to follow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Andy Aguida (ph) is from Ecuador. He's only 4. His fingers and lips are blue because his heart is giving out.
Jacob Sipos is from California. He is 6. He survived four open heart surgeries. Somehow, fate would bring these boys together and change their lives and the lives of those around them.
In March, a team of volunteers from Cedar Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles traveled to Ecuador with the group Healing the Children. The team operates around-the-clock, 17 kids are saved.
Open heart surgery is Andy's only chance for survival.
CLARE SHORT, HEALING THE CHILDREN: Andy was a child that was bumped because they ran out of time.
GUTIERREZ: The team returns to Los Angeles; Andy is left behind.
SHORT: Now, all the other kids, they are with a parent, they are holding their hand, petting their head, or something like that, and Andy had no one. And so then, I asked the question; they said, well, his mother abandoned him as a baby, and his father had disappeared. They called him the orphan boy.
GUTIERREZ: Three thousand miles away, in a Los Angeles suburb, Jacob is surrounded by family, his parents and five brothers. The Sipos say each day with Jacob is a gift. Like Andy, only half of his heart is working.
DEBBIE SIPOS, JACOB'S MOTHER: We decided that day that if he lived one day or 10 days or 80 years, that we were going to make every day of his life and his brother's lives the best we possibly could. No more calendars or clocks, we live it one day at a time. And we were going to make his life a gift. GUTIERRREZ (on camera): So, that's when you do surgery, right?
JACOB SIPOS, HEART PATIENT: Yeah.
GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Jacob already dreams of becoming a doctor.
J. SIPOS: I want to be a doctor because they helped me.
GUTIERREZ: But it was Jacob's birthday wish that would change the lives of so many people.
J. SIPOS: I did not want toys, I wanted money.
GUTIERREZ (on camera): You didn't want toys, you wanted money? What did you want the money for?
J. SIPOS: To help people.
GUTIERREZ (voice-over): And so in lieu of presents, Jacob collected $4,000 to help people. Then Debbie Sipos learned of Andy.
J. SIPOS: They said to me, there is a little boy that's far away, past Mexico, and he's sick, and they asked me if I wanted to bring him to the States so that the doctors could help him, and I said yes.
GUTIERREZ: Jacob's generosity would change Andy's fate. Andy traveled to Los Angeles with a guardian, scared and without family. He would stay with Healing the Children volunteer Debra Blossom (ph).
The next day at Cedar Sinai, Andy waits to see Dr. Alphredo Trento, while Jacob waits to meet Andy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is going to have a little incision here in the middle, up and down, and then I will fix him up.
GUTIERREZ: Dr. Trento was the surgeon who led the team in Ecuador.
ALPHREDO TRENTO, CEDAR SINAI HOSPITAL: We couldn't fit him in. It's a question of how much time we have available, and many kids we can do.
GUTIERREZ: But this time, it's Andy's turn. Surgery is set.
D. SIPOS: Jacob, this is Andy.
J. SIPOS: Hi, Andy.
GUTIERREZ: And the boys finally meet.
(on camera): What did your mom tell you to say in Spanish?
J. SIPOS: Aloha.
D. SIPOS: No, ola.
GUTIERREZ: They cannot speak the same language, but somehow it does not matter.
A week after his arrival, it's time for surgery. In the OR, Dr. Trento and his team work to repair Andy's heart. It will be the first of two operations. In the waiting room, everyone is tense. Hours have gone by.
Just days after surgery, Andy is doing things he's never done before.
D. SIPOS: We were fortunate enough to know that he would be able to grow up and grow old. The least we could ever do is give another child that gift, is to allow another child to grow old, to have children of their own and to experience life.
Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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