Heurese!

We found out this morning that Heurese is alive along with her family! Heurese is a 30-year-old woman whom Haitian Hearts brought to the United States in 2008. She had surgery at Cleveland Clinic, which replaced her diseased heart valve with a state-of-the-art Onyx

artificial heart valve. Heurese stayed with us in Peoria for about five months while she recuperated.

Heurese has two young children. Today they are leaving for her hometown of Bainet on the southern coast of Haiti's peninsula, southwest of Port-au-Prince. It typically takes three hours to travel to Bainet from PAP. Who knows how long their journey will be today?

Heurese's mother and other family live in Bainet, and like many people in Port-au-Prince who survived the earthquake, she wants to leave the devastation of the capital.

In the midst of the tragedy and sorrow, we are so happy to get the good news of the survival of some of our friends. But we know many people have lost their children, their families, their friends, and we mourn along with them.