Angel Alvarez has a simple Christmas wish: a medical device to help him breathe better
Yesenia Valdez first became concerned that something was wrong with her son Angel’s body during a family beach outing eight years ago. He was 6 years old at the time. She had noticed for years that his chest seemed a bit caved in, but she just assumed he was skinnier than most kids.
Then her sister-in-law drew attention to it when she saw Angel in a bathing suit. She suggested that his problem could be more than cosmetic.
Valdez took him to doctors and he was diagnosed with Pectus Excavatum (commonly known as “sunken chest”), which is a congenital deformity of the chest wall that causes the ribs and sternum to grow inward.
The condition gives the chest a caved-in appearance. It can become more than just a cosmetic deformity. In severe cases it can lead to exhaustion during exercise, coughing, and chest pain. It gets worse as the child grows and often affects self-image.
Angel Alvarez, who is also autistic, has suffered all the above. He turned 15 on Dec. 16 and has been bullied throughout his life. He gets out of breath while doing sports. Now an eighth-grade trombone player in the Apollo Middle School band in Pembroke Pines, Alvarez sometimes needs to gasp for air.
There is a surgical treatment for the condition, but it is invasive and not recommended until the body is fully developed. One treatment that has helped is a Vacuum Bell device, a suction cup-like apparatus with a hand-held pump. It is placed on the front of the chest and when the pump is squeezed, an air vacuum pulls the chest and breastbone forward. Over time, the chest wall can change shape and stay forward on its own.
Alvarez has a Vacuum Bell, but needs a new one, and that is No. 1 on his Christmas wish list, along with Legos and drawing supplies. The cost of the device ranges from $250 to $400. Valdez was told that Medicaid does not cover it.
He was nominated for the Herald Wish Book by Sergio Villada of the Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services, who has helped Alex’s mother in other times of need.
“My son stutters a lot, and has autism, but he is very smart, and is a straight-A student,” said Valdez, who also has a 5-year-old autistic daughter Xochitl. “He is in band and speech and debate, but because of his problems, he doesn’t have any friends. He is very shy and insecure. He comes home and instead of hanging out with other kids, he does Legos, reads, draws, and helps me clean the house.”
She is determined to make life easier for her son because, in her words, “We have been through hell and back together. He’s been my buddy through everything, the good and bad.”
There was a lot of bad early on in Yesenia’s and Angel’s lives.
Valdez, 33, came to South Florida from Mexico with her mother when she was 3 years old. They bounced around between Homestead and Tampa when she was a kid. She worked at a flea market at age 12 and left home at age 15 to live in Fort Myers with a 21-year-old boyfriend who abused her mentally and physically. She remained in high school but said after school he would lock her in a room and use her for sex.
“If I didn’t want to, he’d beat me up,” she said. “It was awful, everything you could imagine. I tried to leave, was walking along I-75, but he found me and took me back to the house. I am still traumatized by that time of my life.”
She wound up overdosing on pills and landed in a Vero Beach mental hospital for a few days.
She eventually was able to escape that relationship and met Angel’s father. She was 18 when Angel was born. Three years later, just after Mother’s Day, the boy’s father left her. Angel was only 3, but Valdez said the breakup had a big effect on him.
Things got so bad for her financially that she and Angel slept in a car for a short period of time.
“I had to start from zero, didn’t know how to pay the bills,” she said. “We were living off crackers and Coca-Cola because that’s all I could afford. Me and Angel went through a lot.”
To this day, Angel is protective of his mother and gets worried if she spends a lot of money on groceries. “He tells me that I need to save money and not to spend so much,” she said. “He worries about me.”
Valdez remains in the United States through the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) immigration policy. She is determined to make a better life for her two children. She works at a printing plant, and earns supplemental income by driving for Uber Eats, Postmates and Door Dash.
“The only thing I won’t do is prostitute myself,” she said. “If they tell me to go clean toilets, I’ll clean toilets. Sometimes I get tired and want to give up, but I can’t because of my kids. I feel like it’s me against the world all the time. I tell Angel, `I didn’t have a good childhood. I was working at the flea market when I was 12. I didn’t have a lot of things.’ I want better for my kids and am very strict about school.
“We’re never going to be living in a car like we did in 2013. I tell Angel, `Don’t worry about internet and the latest cellphone. As long as you can pay your rent and light bill, the rest is luxury.’”
How to help
To help this nominee and 150 others who are in need this year:
▪ To donate, use the coupon found in the newspaper or pay securely online through www.MiamiHerald.com/wishbook
▪ For more information, call 305-376-2906 or emailWishbook@MiamiHerald.com
▪ The most requested items are often laptops and tablets for school, furniture, and accessible vans
▪ Read all Wish Book stories on www.MiamiHerald.com/wishbook