By Dan Trudeau
When 5-month-old Akeila Lowe came to Queens from Barbados on May 8, she weighed just 8 pounds and was suffering from serious heart defects that threatened to take her life at any time. But thanks to the Gift of Life program and the Queensborough Rotary Club, she’ll have a second chance at a healthy life.
Akeila’s mother, Yvonne Lowe, described the baby as being blue from a lack of oxygen before leaving Barbados. Akeila underwent six hours of successful open-heart surgery at Schneider Children’s Hospital at Long Island Jewish Hospital in New Hyde Park on May 13.
“Before I felt nervous, but now I feel good, now that everything is getting back to normal,” Lowe said.
Members of the Queensborough Rotary Club raised $5,000 to pay for transportation and living expenses for Akeila and her mother, who stayed at Ronald McDonald House close to the hospital while Akeila recovered. Doctors completed the procedure free of charge because of the relationship between the hospital and the Gift of Life foundation.
Akeila is one of more than 4,000 babies from around the world whose lives have been saved by the Gift of Life since the foundation’s beginnings in 1975, Queensborough Rotary Secretary Charles Jackshies said. The program was started by the International Rotary Club and brings young children from different countries who suffer from terminal heart diseases to the United States for free emergency surgery.
Lowe celebrated her daughter’s recovery with members of the Rotary at a reception Tuesday at the Wyndam Garden Hotel near Laguardia Airport. Rotary member and former President Dennis Tortora assisted Lowe with grocery shopping, transportation and moral support as she waited for Akeila’s return to health.
Tortora, who is a vice president at Steinway and Sons pianos in Long Island City, was amazed at the speed and success of the baby’s recovery.
“After the surgery, she looked like she had a zipper across her chest from the stitches, and she was hooked up to a respirator,” Tortora said. “Within days she was breathing on her own, and you could barely see the scar. It was an instant improvement, and she could go home within the week.”
The club also used the reception to honor local high school seniors who had established themselves as academic elites. Students Sasa Mikavica of Long Island City High School, Aminul Khan of Aviation High School and Jessica Kenniff of Queens Vocational and Technical High School received certificates of recognition and $500 U.S. savings bonds to reward their hard work.
“I think it’s cool and that it should be considered a big deal,” Kenniff said. “It’s not every day you get chosen for something like this.”
The award winners were selected by their guidance counselors, who appeared with the students at the reception. Winners from two other area high schools, Rafal Godlewski of William Cullen Bryant and Monika Sunmberac of Newtown, were selected but could not attend the reception.
