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No. 3 Vol. 1
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www.mtolivenews.com
January 2017
Sisters Share Birth, Lung Disease And Hope For Better Health
By Cheryl Conway hat a wonderful world it would be if there were two-for-one deals when it came to lung transplants. Elsy and Walter Atencio of Netcong got a two-forone deal when their identical twin girls were born on Sept. 6, 2004. They got yet another two for one deal five years ago when they learned that their two girls suffered from Childhood Interstitial Lung Disease, chILD, which is a group of rare lung diseases that can cause chronic cough, rapid breathing and shortness of
breath. Their one daughter, Sofia Maria Atencio, received a double lung transplant last Easter, Sun., March 27, at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, after being on the waiting list for 18 months since 2014. Her sister, Stefany Maria Atencio, went on the waiting list a year later in Oct. 2015, and is still waiting for her donor for the same procedure. “My mom and brother woke me up,” recalls Sofia, seventh grader at the Netcong School. “My mom was crying and said ‘Guess what happened?’ I kept say-
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ing ‘We won the lottery? We are going to Disney Land?’ Then she said ‘no, something that you been waiting for.’ Then she said my lung transplant. Then, I remember that it was Easter morning, and I told them that the Easter bunny brought my lungs, and I remember crying.” Sofia says she now feels like a normal person after faced with so many challenges such as “the struggles to breathe, and live, and fit in with the other kids;” and “no movies” still. “She can’t go to the movies or crowded places, she can get sick easily,” her mom explains. “My hopes for this new year is for Stefy to get her lungs, and looking to party on March 27th for my one year anniversary of my transplant,” says Sofia. Stefany shares the same hope. Her condition has left
her “tired and not active as before. I can’t do anything because I get tired easily and fast, but I play my Ps4 all day!” Unlike Sofia, Stefany is home-schooled as “She’s home all the time having to deal with the world of oxygen,” says her mom. They go to Philadelphia every other week so she can exercise, go for blood work monthly, meet with the pulmonologist. “You have to keep the phone with you 24/7,” waiting for that call to come in as there is only a short window to get to the hospital. When she’s home, she enjoys playing with her 20year old brother and “anything that involves dogs, and playing video games and my sister,” says Stefany. Sofia got the transplant first because she was on the waiting list longer as she was “weaker than Stefany,” says Elsy. “She was in a
Sofia, on left, and Stefany.
wheelchair. She was in really bad shape. She was really tired even talking to us; it was really hard for her.” Since the surgery, “Sofia is the joy of life,” says her mom. “She’s happy.
She was doing Christmas gifts this year, stayed up until midnight. It’s another Sofia, full of energy and happiness. She’s at school getting good grades and continued on page 4