Police hope to heal hole in Baby Melanie’s heart

A police escort has delivered a 14-month-old Ecuadoran toddler with a hole in her heart from Newark Airport to a Long Island Hospital, where she is to undergo surgery that could save her life. Thanks to the efforts of the National Police Defense Foundation and Gift of Life, Inc., the American Consulate in Guayaquil issued an emergency visa on Monday for Melanie Macias, who was approved for a life-saving heart operation.

Jerry DeMarco

09/16/2009 7:25 p.m.

At Newark Liberty International Airport on Wednesday to meet the girl and her mom were NJ State Police troopers, along with their counterparts from the NYPD, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Suffolk County (Long Island). They got a special police escort to Snyder’s Children Hospital in New Hyde Park.

Melanie Macias

The Operation Kids program, a congressionally recognized child safety initiative of the National Police Defense Foundation, is credited with arranging eight life-saving operations for critically ill children worldwide.

Melanie’s case was brought to the group’s attention by an email from Melanie’s mom, Elsa Mise, last December.

The NPDF got together with the Gift of Life, Inc., which recruited Snyder’s to conduct the operation free of charge.

For further info: Operation Kids Coordinator John De Prima at 631-559-7109 or Gift of Life, Inc at 516-506-0830. Photo: Courtesy Eyewitness News, Channel 7, New York City

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