A medical plea for cousin's heart condition

Jose Louis Merino Mendez is his name.  We call him Cheguy.  He's my Uncle's son on my mother's side.  He's a Spanish citizen looking for medical help, help he's apparently unable to find in his home country.

In our hope of finding him help, I'm publishing what we've received stateside from him to date, which sadly isn't much, but it's what we have and can be found in its entirety, in both Spanish and broken English, here.

The family's taken what steps we can for him, including contacting Duke University's International Patient Services, in the hopes of finding someone in the medical field who might be willing to take on his case and perhaps offer assistance.

What we know, copied from the PDF'd document he sent us, follows and again, it's translated from Spanish and so not easily read:

• Cheguy is 39 years old and was diagnosed with this condition in November of 2007
• He was told that his condition is rare and that he's one of forty documented cases
• The condition, as best we can tell, centers on having a "single ventricle with transposition of grand vessels".  I confess I have no clue what that means however this link to AmericanHeart.Org may shed light.

The bottom line is that we're being told he cannot get adequate treatment in Spain but hopes that some enterprising surgeon here in the States would be willing to take on his case to both help him and perhaps those who suffer with the same condition based on knowledge gained from Cheguy's treatment.

My hope, our family's hope, is that in addition to what we're already doing in attempting to find him help, someone may stumble across this piece, get it in the hands of someone who can help, and contact us via my email address.

We admit to and acknowledge that this is an unorthodox way of seeking help and that this post provides few details... however... we're willing to be unorthodox as we look to pull alongside, as best we can, a family member and hope that this might be an additional step toward finding him some much needed assistance.

Thanks.

Comments

[Sissy Willis]

Mayo Clinic? I've read that they take all comers, I think.

[Mommynator]

Been doing some reading, and you definitely don't have enough information. There are many types of single ventricular defects with various types of great vessel inversions and misplacements.

Maybe a copy of the diagnostic report faxed and get someone who speaks Spanish with medical knowledge to translate?

[Rick]

We're hoping to get that information to you Mommynator... thanks...