A little orphan from Haiti has secured six more months in the United States as doctors in Minnesota try to treat a potentially deadly heart condition.
The girl, Rose Nacheca, was brought to the United States this month on a 10-day visa by the Freshwater Church in St. Bonifacious just west of Minneapolis so that doctors could figure out what was wrong with her, but they were running out of time.
Rose looks like a typical healthy baby, but she's actually 3 years old and is at the weight of an 8-month-old child.
"If we send her back to Haiti and she has congenital heart disease, she will die in that place," said Dan Sorenson, a member of the church who brought Rose to Minnesota.
On Friday, Sorenson took Rose to the Customs and Border Patrol terminal at the airport in hopes of renewing her visa. They got their wish.
“They approved her visa immediately and for more than enough time to get Rose the help she needs," Sorenson said.
Doctors detected a murmur in Rose's heart, which could be a sign of a defect. That's easy to fix in Minnesota, but could amount to a death sentence in Haiti. But Rose is a tough little girl, who's already survived so much and is still standing.
Rose's mother surrendered her to an orphanage in Haiti last October because she couldn't take care of the girl. At the time, Rose only weighed 11 pounds and had nearly starved to death.
Workers at the orphanage put Rose on a regular feeding program, but she's still dangerously small for her age. Freshwater Church adopted the orphanage long before the earthquake devastated it along with the rest of Haiti.
“The next step for Nacheca is to go back to her doctor and start the process of fixing her heart,” Sorenson said, adding it will include cardio graphs and an MRI.
Foxnews.com's Meghan Baker and MyFoxTwinCities contributed to this report.
The hottest stories ripped from the headlines, from crime to courts, legal and scandal.
