Toddler needs help for lower lip surgery

MIAMI (WSVN) -- A mother from Trinidad is looking for help so her 2-year-old daughter can get life-changing surgeries to live a long and healthy life.

Adiah's future will not be as simple as other toddlers. "She's fun, outgoing, caring," said Adiah's mother, Stacy Despot.

Doctors at Jackson Memorial Hospital said Adiah has a condition affecting her bottom lip called hemangioma: a tangled build-up of blood vessels that can burst at any time. "If it bleeds, it can be life-threating," said JMH Plastic Surgeon Dr. Seth Thaller. "She's had every non-surgical treatment that's available."

Her mother said it all started as a small blemish on her face, which then got bigger over time. "It started like a little dot in the corner, started to spread, and after a while it started to swell," said Despot. "With the swelling, the lip cracked, got infected, and the infection ate away the whole bottom lip."

The condition affects Adiah's talking and eating. "We have to be very careful with her," said Despot.

Doctors from Adiah's country of Trinidad and Tobago are trained to treat her, but do not have the equipment needed to help her.

The 20-year-old single mother cannot afford the four surgeries Adiah needs, which add up to about $85,000. "I don't work back home. I have to get support from my family to maintain her and myself and her health care," said Despot.

The Wonder Fund organization is working JMH to help raise the money Adiah needs for her surgeries. "We cannot use the taxpayers' money to bring in children from international countries," said International Kids Fund Wonderfund Director Maria Luisa Chea.

Dr. Seth Thaller said, "She's gonna have at least three or four surgeries."

Despot is asking for anyone who to please help her daughter get the surgeries she needs to live a better and healthier life. "She gives me strength to keep going. I just want to be there for her, to see her live a normal life," she said.

The International Kids Funds is trying to raise the $85,000 that will cover all the needed surgeries for Adiah. You can help by visting this site: http://www.wonderfund.org/

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