The Layover | Translation

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Translated by MC Editorial

[Daniel Alarcón]: If you listen to Radio Ambulante or El hilo, you probably already know that we’re obsessed with politics—not just in Latin America, but also in the US. This year’s presidential election is not only one of the most crucial in history, but also one of the tightest. There’s a lot at stake, and the outcome will likely come down to just a few states.

This time, over 36 million Latinos are eligible to vote, and to better understand them, we teamed up with our partners at Noticias Telemundo to create a new series: El Péndulo. Join journalist Julio Vaqueiro as he visits five key states: Pennsylvania, Florida, Nevada, Arizona, and North Carolina. Listen to El Péndulo: Voto Latino 2024, a podcast by Noticias Telemundo and Radio Ambulante Studios, available on our Central series channel on iHeart Radio or your favorite podcast platform.

This is Radio Ambulante, I’m Daniel Alarcón.

This story contains some disturbing scenes. Discretion is advised.

Today we start with two couples who, towards the end of 2001, were more than 11 thousand kilometers apart. First, these two:

[Erika Ávila]: Eh, my name is Erika Ávila.

[Roberto Vélez]: And I’m Roberto Vélez.

[Daniel]: Both Colombians, living in Australia. And then…

[Matías Guajardo]: I’m Matías Guajardo. 

[Claudia Seco]: I am Claudia Seco Fourcade.

[Daniel]: They are Chileans, and they live in Santiago. 

Almost at the same time, Erika and Claudia had the same suspicion:

[Erika]: I started to feel a little nauseous. And of course, I was late, I went in, I remember I was in a shopping mal, where I went into a pharmacy, I bought the test and went to the restroom, and it came out positive.

[Claudia]: I knew immediately that I was pregnant. I bought a test, took the test, and automatically the two lines came up.

[Daniel]: Claudia told Matías right away. But Erika didn’t. 

[Erika]: This was about a week before Christmas. So what I decided to do was buy him a card and put the test in the envelope. 

[Roberto Vélez]: At first I didn’t understand it. I read it and saw it; I don’t remember whether it had one or two lines. And I said, “But what is this?” 

[Erika]: I wrote something like E-T-A which is the acronym for Estimated Time of Arrival, which is used for flights. And I wrote on it, “ETA: August 2002.”

[Daniel]: The reference to the approximate time of arrival had to do with the fact that Roberto worked in aviation. This is why they moved to Australia right after they were married in 1994. Roberto’s mother was from there, and they thought it was a good place for him to get a job more easily. Erika, a lawyer, started working in an office of the Australian Foreign Ministry.

They lived in different cities, and they traveled a lot. They loved the freedom they had, and that’s why they had not thought about having children. But at age 37, Erika had a change of mind. Roberto also felt ready to be a father, and just two months later, Erika was pregnant. They were both happy at the news.

Matías and Claudia, on the other hand, did not expect it. They were 22 years old, they had been dating for a while, and they were students. Matías studied Medicine and Claudia studied Gastronomy.     

[Matías]: No… When Claudia told me that she was pregnant, it was a great joy, regardless of the fact that I knew it was going to be very, very difficult for us. Basically, because we were very young—young kids, both of us. But I always remember projecting myself as a dad. 

[Daniel]: Claudia had always wanted to be a mother also, but it was a plan for the future. 

[Claudia]: So this was clearly not planned, but it was well received.

[Daniel]: With the financial support of their parents, they decided to get married and move in together.

Both pregnancies were good, but the births were difficult.

About two weeks before her due date, Erika began to feel her first contractions. She spent almost three days at home in a lot of pain, but she didn’t dilate and her water didn’t break. She ended up going to the hospital, where the doctors began to evaluate the possibility of performing a cesarean section.

[Erika]: And I said, “A C-section now? After I’ve suffered for three days? Not a chance. No, I can’t think about that.” Then I remember that I pushed twice and it was very painful. I screamed, I suffered a tear and the doctors, the midwives, told me, “Stop, no more!” And out she came.

[Daniel]: Erika gave birth to a girl. They named her Mariana, and soon they would give her a nickname. She would be “Mananas.”

Claudia, on the other hand, was already more than a week past her due date and still wasn’t having any contractions. So they went to the clinic and they started inducing her. 

[Matías]: Clau was shivering. A little nervous, a little excited, both with that clear feeling that there was going to be a before and after.

[Claudia]: They told me, “Push,” and I put my legs together, even though I was tied, I put my legs together and said, “Get me out of here.”

And then Matías started talking to me, talking to me, talking to me like, “Let’s go, Claudia” and I don’t know what else. And then they realized that the baby had moved his head a little and they inserted forceps and brought him out.

[Daniel]: Claudia gave birth to a boy. They called him Matías, just like his father. But from his birth, many would call him Mati.

The distance, the nationality, even the different stages of life in which the couple found themselves—everything indicated that these families were never going to meet, but something that no one could have predicted ended up uniting them forever.

The story, after the break. 

[Daniel]: We’re back with Radio Ambulante. Our editorial director, Camila Segura, picks up the story.

[Camila Segura]: Two days later, Erika and Roberto were home with Mariana. They were living in Perth at the time, a city on the western coast of Australia. Like all new parents, they were learning day by day. From the very start, Mariana was a very calm baby. 

[Erika]: Chubby, friendly, always smiling. Every morning, when I went into her room, she greeted me with a huge smile, and she was also very good and never cried in the mornings. 

[Roberto Vélez]: She was not a difficult child at all. For example, she would wake up at three or four in the morning and I would go and cuddle with her for a while, and then she would fall asleep again, very calmly.

[Camila]: Mati was the complete opposite.

[Claudia]: Mati cried all day—the entire day. You held him and he cried. You didn’t hold him and he cried, you fed him milk and he cried.

[Camila]: Those first weeks were hard for Claudia and Matías. They were exhausted, but they thought that that constant crying would stop at some point and that, probably, that’s how all babies were.

[Claudia]: The reason we started to notice that something was wrong with him was because he started to turn yellow, yellower and yellower. It was no longer yellow; it was more like gray, kind of greenish. 

[Camila]: This no longer seemed like the typical jaundice of some newborn babies who turn a little yellow due to excess bilirubin. That’s something that usually goes away on its own a few days after birth. But Mati was already a month and a half old, and that color, at that age, was not normal. Furthermore, he got worse day by day. 

[Claudia]: It wasn’t necessarily yellow or green or gray—it was like phosphorescent. His eyes and everything. It was sudden…

[Camila]: So they decided to take him to the clinic.

[Claudia]: And I remember that they put Mati in the machine and took him out of the machine. And they put him back into the machine and took him out of the machine. And the doctors called each other. And I just cursed to myself. And I said, “Something is going on.” 

[Camila]: When the exams were finished, the doctor told them:  

[Claudia]: “The tests say there is something wrong with his liver.” 

[Camila]: Mati had to be hospitalized for further testing and to confirm the diagnosis. A few days later, the results came in: Mati had biliary atresia. Not even his father, who was studying medicine, knew what that was.

[Matías]: I remember I came home to look up atresia, atresia or biliary atresia, in the medical books I had, and it is such an uncommon situation that I found very little information, and all the information I found indicated a very bad prognosis.

[Camila]: Biliary atresia happens when a baby is born with blocked liver ducts. These ducts carry bile from the liver to the small intestine, so if they are clogged, bile builds up and ultimately causes chronic liver damage. 

[Matías]: And this was my newborn son. So it was a very, very difficult situation. But there wasn’t much room to get lost in that emotion.

[Camila]: We had to act quickly. The only alternative was to subject Mati to a big operation. They had to remove the damaged bile ducts and connect the small intestine to the liver so that the bile could come out.

Just a few days after receiving the diagnosis, Mati, less than two months old, was ready to enter the operating room. Just before that, they were approached by the anesthesiologist.

[Claudia]: She tried to get us out because in fact, she realized that we had to face it: the panorama looked very bad, you know? 

[Camila]: But they had already been told: It was a complicated operation, and the chances of success were very low. 

[Claudia]: The surgery had a 30% chance of being successful and we could then forget about the problem, a 30% chance that he would need a liver transplant in a couple of years, and a 30% chance that the surgery would not work and they would have to do a transplant right away.

[Camila]: The operation lasted six hours. Claudia and Matías were very anxious, until finally the doctors came to tell them how everything had turned out.

[Claudia]: And we were in the worst 30 percent. 

[Camila]: Mati needed a transplant as soon as possible. 

[Matías]: The transplant at that moment sounded like a universe falling on top of you.

[Camila]: Claudia and Matías contacted the Las Condes Clinic, the only one in Santiago de Chile that performed pediatric transplants at the time. The doctors there were categorical about one thing: The best option was to get a baby’s liver, but it was not easy to get it.

[Matías]: There are no deceased donors for young children in Chile. So the only alternative Matías had was a transplant from a living donor. In that case, it was going to be me. 

[Camila]: In the early 2000s, the rate of organ donations in Chile was very low. People over 18 years old had to explicitly state their willingness to donate, but very few did so. Furthermore, the family could retract the decision after death. When it came to babies or children, it was even harder for parents to allow the organs to be removed.

After confirming the compatibility between Mati and his father, the best option was for him to donate a part of his own liver. The liver is the only organ that regenerates completely, and donating a portion of it is enough. The donor can continue to lead a normal life. But in the middle of all this, one thing was stated clearly to them:

[Claudia]: “We have never operated on a child. A baby with so few kilos must be made to gain weight by any means. He has to weigh a little more; otherwise the risk is very high.” 

[Camila]: The illness itself had caused Mati to lose a lot of weight.

After surgery, he was hospitalized for about two weeks and then discharged in a very delicate condition. 

[Matías]: We took Matías home with all the proper care, with his little stomach open, with brackets, with drains, with hoses, and all that at home. 

[Camila]: Those would be very difficult days. But all they could do was wait for him to gain weight.

Meanwhile, in Australia, Mariana was growing up in good health. Erika and Roberto enjoyed taking her for walks in her stroller and the routines they were building. When she was about four months old, they decided to travel to Colombia so the family could meet her. It was December 2002.

[Erika]: Both families were fascinated by this baby who smiled a lot and interacted with everyone. She was perfect. 

[Camila]: They stayed in Colombia for a month, receiving the love of the whole family, all the help that they didn’t have in Australia. They were able to relax and have fun. 

[Erika]: I felt all that human warmth. I started to feel Colombia is the best, and I said, “No, I don’t… I don’t want to leave this place.” 

[Camila]: Although in a very different context, Matías and Claudia also took refuge in the affection of their family during those days. He had summer vacation, so they went to Temuco, in southern Chile, for a few weeks. They were both from there and could also count on help and take it easy while Mati gained weight. But the disease continued to advance very aggressively.

[Claudia]: A crying child, who was given lots of medicine. So he had fat cheeks from the corticosteroids, and his tummy was round like a soccer ball.

[Matías]: With a lot of fluids in his little abdomen. That’s called ascites. I mean, he had such a full belly. Very, very, very sick. 

[Camila]: But the time came when both families had to return home. Some to Santiago, others to Australia. Erika and Roberto found it very hard to say goodbye. Now, with a little girl, everything was different. Even the place where they were going would be different. They were moving to Darwin, a more remote place in the north of the country. They made that change because they thought Roberto would have more chances of getting a better job there. But it was a difficult time. Roberto did not find anything. And also, Erika found out shortly afterwards that she was pregnant. Mariana was 5 months old. Although they were very excited about the idea of ​​another baby, the situation did not improve.  

[Erika]: A month, two months, three months went by, and we started asking, “Well, what do we do?” I was very lonely, I had no friends, I felt very helpless, desperate with the heat. So I began to realize that coming here had not been a good idea for us.

[Camila]: So they set a deadline: if Roberto didn’t get a job by the end of April, they would return to Colombia. 

[Erika]: And pretty much secretly, I began to cross my fingers so that Roberto wouldn’t get a job.

[Camila]: And so it was. 

[Erika]:  April 30 arrived, and we said, “We are moving to Colombia.” 

[Camila]: A month before, Matías and Claudia had returned from the south to Santiago. Matías had to go back to college, and Mati had to see the doctor. It wasn’t good news, because he had not gained enough weight, so they placed a tube up his nose, connected to a feeding pump. 

[Claudia]: We gave him special milk at night so that he would gain weight all night. The nine hours that he slept, chuck chuck, the pump sounded, chuck chuck.

[Camila]: After a few months, they took him back for another checkup. The doctor told them that the liver was very compromised, that Mati was now the right weight, and that he needed the operation as soon as possible.

They decided that it would be a month later: mid-July of that year, 2003. Meanwhile, all the preoperative testing had to be done on Matías and Mati, and there were also bureaucratic issues to take care of. One of them was to register Mati on the national organ transplant waiting list. It was just a formality.

[Claudia]: “It’s just a formality,” they told us. I clearly remember when they told us. “Don’t expect an organ because it will never arrive.”

[Camila]: During all this time, Claudia had seen her son being pricked dozens of times to draw blood and perform tests. She had spent entire nights awake watching over him, for fear that he would choke on the feeding tube.

Now, as his surgery date approached, she was terrified that the transplant would not be the solution, but the end of everything. And with that awful feeling, she doubted whether it was really worth it to continue subjecting her baby to so many treatments. 

[Claudia]: And I said to him, “What if we don’t do anything to him?” I said, “What if we leave him alone?” And Matías said, “Impossible, Claudia. That’s the most undignified death you can give to your child. He’s going to burst inside.” Ascites was that ball of water inside the abdomen. At some point, it was going to burst because it was so big, it was going to burst inside, and that has to be extremely painful. He said, “We can’t not do anything.” “Let’s not do anything,” I said. “I don’t want you to give him a piece of organ, because when he dies in the ward, you’re going to be asleep,” I said, “and I’m going to face it alone.” 

[Camila]: But Matías finally convinced her.

In Australia, Erika and Roberto began the moving process to return to Colombia. They went on a farewell tour, and one of the places they went to was Magnetic Island, an island in northeastern Australia. Erika has one very clear memory:

[Erika]: We stopped in front of some huge rocks to take a photo, and at that moment I felt an intuition came to me like a blow to the head, telling me, “We are making a mistake.”

[Camila]: But there was no turning back. They had planned their trip for June 20, but Erika came down with a very bad flu, so they decided to postpone the trip. They took off four days later.

I held her in my lap. Mariana was at the window and she waved goodbye, as if knowing that we were leaving. It was incredible when I saw her wave goodbye.

[Camila]: The route to Bogotá would be from Canberra to Sydney, and from there they would stop for a few days in Santiago de Chile. They had never been there, and also, they wanted to rest a little. They arrived at an apartment hotel in Las Condes neighborhood on Tuesday, June 24, 2003. They would spend five days touring with Mariana. It was the middle of winter.

[Roberto Vélez]: It seemed like a very cold city to me. The bottom of the clouds was always very low; it was always very cloudy, very foggy. But in any case, we walked around the city a lot. 

[Erika]: We took her everywhere, and she was peaceful and happy. She was a baby who smiled at everyone, charmed everyone, exchanged glances, and laughed. She made a lot of contact with many people in Santiago.

[Camila]: They visited museums, went to the San Cristóbal Mountain and toured different neighborhoods. Their flight to Colombia was on a Sunday; and on Friday, on their way back to the hotel, they saw a very nice café that had a menu of traditional Australian breakfasts. It seemed like the perfect way to finish off their goodbye to Australia. The plan was to go the next morning.   

[Erika]: And we went to the hotel to rest that night. Incredible. While we were packing, I went into the room, and Mariana, who was standing leaning on the tables, took three steps at that very moment, and I was thrilled because those were her first three steps.

[Camila]: That morning, Saturday, June 28, Mariana began to whimper. It was very early, around 5 in the morning, so they gave her a bottle of milk and everyone fell asleep again. At seven, Erika and Roberto got up to get ready… and went to wake up Mariana. 

[Roberto]: I showered with Mariana, I remember. It was a great shower, very nice with her.

She really liked water, she really liked the feeling of… well, holding on to you. She laughed a lot in the shower. So I always laughed, too, when I bathed her.

[Camila]: They left the hotel and walked towards the cafe they had seen, pushing Mariana in the stroller. 

[Erika]: You had to cross an avenue called Bosque Norte. About 30 meters in, Roberto tells me, “Oh, stop for a second.” 

[Roberto]: And my shoe came untied. The right shoe. So I had to stop for ten or fifteen seconds to tie that shoe. 

[Camila]: They kept on walking and reached the intersection of Bosque Norte Avenue and San Sebastián. It was a wide, two-way street. They had to cross it to get to the cafe. It was around nine in the morning. 

[Erika]: And when we got to the corner, something very strange happened to me. There were no cars, there was no one, the street was empty. So I looked both ways and thought I could cross. The traffic light for pedestrians was red, and I started to cross the avenue. I had taken about two steps when I feel Roberto pulling me back…

[Roberto]:  And I stopped her and said, “Hey, you are in Latin America now because you’re going to cross on a red light.” 

[Erika]: I felt horrible and I said, “Oh, how stupid.”

[Roberto]: And she laughed and said, “Sure, let’s wait.” And so we stopped to wait for the traffic light to turn green.

[Erika]: Not even 20 seconds had passed when I heard a crash, a screech. Like a… like a tire. I couldn’t see anything. I was looking at the traffic light. 

[Roberto]: And a few seconds later, I heard a big noise from the left side and I managed to move my head to the left and see, out of the corner of my eye, that a car was coming straight towards us.

It jumped onto the sidewalk and almost hit me. And I managed to take a step back. In that step back, I pushed Erika, who was to my right pushing the stroller.

[Erika]: I heard that noise and I couldn’t even turn my head to see what it was, when I felt Roberto push me. He pushed me back hard and I felt like the stroller was ripped out of my hands. I felt tremendous pain in my hands. 

[Roberto]: I looked at the stroller and saw that it was empty. When I pushed backwards, Mariana went flying. I turned around and didn’t see her. I couldn’t find her anywhere. We saw her about three or four meters away from us, lying on the sidewalk.

[Erika]: And I was looking at the car’s license plate like in slow motion, because I realized the car was fleeing; of course, I looked at the license plate and the first thing I did was look for Mariana. Mariana was more or less five meters away, next to a post.

I got completely hysterical. I started screaming, and she was completely stiff next to the sidewalk, and I didn’t even want to look at her. No, no. I was paralyzed, completely paralyzed. Roberto ran to see her.

[Roberto]: I saw her with her face down and wrapped in the—in a shawl she had. And that was it. I threw myself down and tried to pick her up, thinking that she was hurt, because I saw her head bleeding.

[Erika]: And Roberto picked her up with great care. He held by her neck and head with both hands. And Roberto is very big. He has very large hands. So he was able… he picked her up as if he were a giant spoon.

[Erika]: And I wasn’t getting close. I asked him from a distance, “Is she alive? Is she alive?” And he said, “She is breathing.”

[Roberto]: Yes, I realized that she was alive. Because I put my cheek close to her nose and felt her breathing. But in my right hand I had her head and she did have a huge injury to her head, so I said, “This is very complicated,” because it was bleeding. She had a huge bump on her head and she was bleeding from one ear.

[Camila]: With all the noise, people began to come out and many approached Roberto trying to help.

[Roberto]: I didn’t want anyone to get close because I was already holding Mariana in my arms and I didn’t want anyone to touch her or move her, because I was thinking at that moment, “The last thing you want to do is move someone you know has been hit.” I didn’t know whether she had broken her back or what had happened. So what I wanted was to protect her from the entire world.

[Camila]: One of the people who had approached began to make signs in the street until a car offered to take them to the Santiago Military Hospital, which was nearby, about six blocks away. They got in quickly, Roberto always carrying Mariana as if his arms were a cradle. 

[Roberto]: And he very kindly drove us, but I saw that he was shaking more than I was. He was driving and his hands were shaking, because he obviously did realize exactly what had happened.

[Erika]: I was in shock, I heard her, I heard Mariana whimpering, and I told her, “We are here, we are here, we are here, I am here,” I told her, “I am here, Mananas.” But I heard her whimpering in pain and, well, that trip to the hospital was very, very distressing.

[Camila]: As soon as they arrived, Erika stuck half of her body out the window and started asking for help. The doctors’ response was immediate.

[Erika]: They ran out and put her in a cubicle, they closed the curtain and told me, “You can’t come in.” And I stayed outside and I just told her from outside, “Here I am, Mananas, I am here.”

[Daniel]: We’ll be back after a break. 

[Daniel]: We’re back with Radio Ambulante. Camila Segura continues the story.

[Camila]: Erika and Roberto had to stay in the hospital waiting room while Mariana was examined. 

[Erika]: I remember that I was shaking a lot. My legs were shaking; they were weak. And Roberto, completely pale, silent, hugged me. But no, we couldn’t even talk. 

[Roberto]: Everything was very slow, everything was very, very confusing, and we waited hours and hours and hours, waiting for someone to come out and tell us what was happening.

[Camila]: About four hours later, they saw a doctor approaching them.

[Erika]: And she told us, “Please sit down.” She bit her lips and hands a lot… her fingers were clenched and she started looking at the floor. She told us, “Your daughter is in bad shape, in very bad shape. Hmm, I want to let you know that it is going to be very difficult for her to come out of this.” 

[Camila]: Between crying and anguish, Erika couldn’t stop asking herself a question:

[Erika]: “But how the hell is this happening to us right now?” On our last day in Santiago, on our way to have breakfast. It was such an absurd thing. 

[Camila]: After Mariana was moved to the Intensive Care Unit, they were finally allowed to see her.

[Erika]: I walk in and see my baby full of wires, everywhere, on her head, on her hands, with probes, with needles, with everything… you would never want to see a baby in that state. And with a cloth covering her skull. I saw her. I started shaking. And I told her again, “Mananas, I am here.” And I approached her and took her hand, her arm, and she didn’t react. She was completely absent, so I lay down on her bed with her, to stroke her and talk to her and somehow take all this in.

[Camila]: Part of what the doctor had told them was that if Mariana survived, she was going to be in very bad shape. She could be blind, have a permanent cognitive disability, and possibly be in a wheelchair because the injury was to the brainstem.

[Erika]: So, well, getting that news. I was very relieved to see her alive, but I also told her, “Don’t stay if you don’t… don’t stay, go in peace, because if what you have to do is leave, then go.”

[Camila]: The next 48 hours would be crucial to see how much damage the car had caused.

Several tests were done to check her ability to react. On Monday, two days after the accident, the doctor they had been talking to stood with them in front of the room where Mariana was and said…   

[Roberto]: That basically there was nothing to be done, that it was not going to change. 

[Erika]: We have confirmed that your child is brain-dead.

[Camila]: Mariana was still alive only because she was connected to the machines, but she would never breathe on her own again.

After giving them their condolences, they were told that it was their decision when they wanted to disconnect her.

[Erika]: And I told her that we wanted to donate her organs. 

[Roberto]: I remember that both doctors’ eyes opened wide. That was a… a door opening that they were not expecting. 

[Camila]: Erika and Roberto were registered as donors in Australia, so they had no doubts about their decision. But, as we already said, this was not a common practice in Chile, and hence the doctor’s reaction.

[Erika]: She was pretty quiet, and she looked at me and she was like, “Are you sure?” And I said, “Yes.”

Then she said, “I have to let the directors know, the hospital directors.” And she did.

[Camila]: The hospital placed a call immediately to the transplant network, and Mariana was registered as a donor. They began to cross-check the data with the patients on the waiting list to evaluate compatibilities.

[Erika]: And there they find a nine-month-old baby who needs a liver, because he is at risk of dying. And they said to us, “Do you agree?” and we said, “Definitely… at once, do it, let’s do this tomorrow and do what you can.”

[Camila]: A while later, Claudia’s phone rang. 

[Claudia]: And it was Tere. Tere was the secretary of the Transplant Unit.

[Camila]: They also called Matías. He was doing a shift at a hospital.

[Matías]: They tell me, “Matías, we need you to come urgently to the clinic with Mati.” “But what happened?”

[Claudia]: And he tells me, “Claudia. I have news for you. There is an organ for Mati.”

[Matías]: But we were going to do this two weeks later, with me as a living donor. There are no pediatric donors in Chile.

[Claudia]: Yes, Claudia, but there is a whole organ for Mati.

[Matías]: A donor appeared who is exactly the same… the same age and exactly the same size as Matías.

[Claudia]: “And what does whole mean?” He said, “A complete organ that comes with the bile duct, that comes complete. A liver is coming for Mati.” But I asked Tere, “But which is better? Is Matías’s situation better or this?”

She told me, “Claudia, this is a thousand times better, it’s a miracle they have this.”

[Camila]: Matías went straight home to pick up Claudia and Mati. They grabbed some things in a hurry and told their families. Then they went straight to the clinic.

In order to do the transplant, Mariana had to remain connected while they performed surgery to remove all the organs that she could donate: the liver for Mati, but also her heart valves and her corneas.

On Wednesday, July 2, at 10 o’clock a.m., Erika and Roberto came in to say goodbye to their baby.

[Erika]: And I lay down next to her. I said goodbye. I thanked her for having been that source of happiness that we had never known, and I thanked her for all that, for all those heavenly months. I cut a lock of her hair and I want to keep this.

[Camila]: After a while, the nurses arrived to take her to the operating room.

[Erika]: Roberto and I stood behind the stretcher and we all began to push it together, first the nurses and us behind. And suddenly I see all the patients’ family members lining up on either side while we passed. It was like everyone came out with their heads down as we walked. And I felt like the drums were rolling. I felt like she was going to be executed. And I felt those drums inside my head, like a rhythm. 

[Camila]: Erika and Roberto stayed in the waiting room during the operation.

[Erika]: And well, finally a doctor comes out with one of those small coolers. A blue ski in his hand. He stops. He sees us. He hugs us. And he leaves. 

[Camila]: He was carrying the liver for Mati. 

[Erika]: And after a while they called us and said, “You can see her now.” And we went into the operating room and… and of course, Mariana was completely cold by then. And all I did was pick her up. I said, “Finally I can hold you.” Because I wasn’t able to hold her in those days because she was connected to devices. And I picked her up, and in the middle of it all, I felt glad to be able to hold her for myself, because I had been holding her for ten months, and I remember telling her, “I can finally hold you.”

[Camila]: Claudia and Matías had arrived at Las Condes Clinic, where Mati would have his transplant. They completed the admissions paperwork quickly, and the doctors took him directly to the ICU. They admitted him to an isolated sector. Claudia and Matías did not leave his side. Soon their siblings arrived to accompany them. And a while later, their parents, who had left Temuco as soon as they were told the news. At around 6:30 in the afternoon, the doctors went to get Mati.

[Claudia]: When I handed my child over, I thought he was going to die. I always, always, always thought he was going to die. 

[Camila]: It was a very complicated and long procedure. After about 4 hours, halfway through the operation, a doctor came out to give them an update on how things were going: 

[Matías]: Listen, we’re making progress with Matías’ surgery. It’s difficult. But we are fine. Everything is under control.

[Claudia]: They had removed the organ, Mati’s liver, which was actually and literally a rock. Mati’s liver was a piece of rock.

[Camila]: Now came the process of transplanting Mariana’s liver.

The news of the transplant had leaked out to the media, and several journalists were already reporting at the door of both hospitals. It was a moment for the history of medicine. 

[Archive Soundbite]

[Journalist]: The parents decided to donate all possible organs from their baby, making Mariana the smallest donor in the history of transplants in Chile.

[Camila]: But there was something else: In those days, members of Congress from different parties had submitted a bill to change the law on transplants. If approved, all Chileans would be donors unless they opted out. This was intended to increase donation rates and save lives. Also, the circumstances in which Mariana had died were so shocking that they attracted attention from every point of view.

At one point, the director of the Military Hospital’s ICU asked Erika and Roberto whether they would be willing to speak to the press. They agreed, thinking they were going to meet two or three journalists, but there were dozens. They were stunned by the camera spotlights, and even while they were grieving, they answered all the questions—which were practically variations of the same question: why donate your baby’s organs?

Here they are, speaking to the press, shortly after saying goodbye to Mariana:

[Archive Soundbite]

[Roberto]: When we lost Mariana, what we wanted was to go on giving, and basically that is the teaching she gave us.

[Archive Soundbite]

[Erika]: Her greatest gift was her generosity while she was here, and I think that’s what we learned from her. That is why we also wanted to give back and help save other lives. 

[Camila]: In those first statements, they seem very calm, contained. And later, they would give several more interviews. Not only for Chilean media, but journalists from Colombia and Australia also began looking for them. In all the interviews, they seemed equally calm. This is one of the many journalists who interviewed them in those days: 

[Archive Soundbite]

[Journalist]: It’s very difficult to ask this question, but it’s hard to understand—at least for me—that people who come to visit a country where they lose a daughter would then do this great favor to the country. And on top of that, you don’t feel angry. I mean, looking at you, you don’t look like people who are carrying any hate, shall we say, so how do you achieve that?

[Erika]: Thanks to Mariana. She was a little girl so, so full of love and happiness that… And a heart so innocent that she could not harbor a feeling of hatred and rage. We can’t do that because I think it would be dishonoring her memory. 

[Camila]: I also asked them how they achieved that peace of mind and why they agreed to give so many statements.

[Erika]: In the middle of all this shock and all this sadness, I needed to keep my head busy.

[Camila]: Because, in addition, Erika also had to think about her other child, who would be born in October. They both needed to be strong to welcome him.

About eight kilometers away, at Las Condes Clinic, as many journalists were waiting to get a statement from Claudia and Matías. It was through their reporting that Claudia and Matías learned who the donor was and the details of the accident. They were overwhelmed and in a state of uncertainty about the outcome of the transplant, but they still went out to talk to the media. They had something to say: 

(Archive Soundbite)

[Claudia]: To tell them that we thank them with all our hearts. I mean, what they did could save the life of our son. That alone is wonderful. 

(Archive Soundbite)

[Matías]: And it is true that we lack words to describe what we are feeling at this moment, and the feeling of deep gratitude we have towards… towards this couple. 

[Camila]: The transplant took about eight hours, and at around two-thirty in the morning, the doctors came out to talk to Claudia and Matías. The operation had gone well, but the following hours would be crucial. They would be monitoring him in a special sector in the ICU. 

[Claudia]: They left him in the glass house, which was not a room; it was a box. Number six. I called it the glass house. 

[Camila]: Claudia and Matías watched him through that glass. He was full of hoses and cables. Only the doctors and nurses could touch him, but they did not leave that place for a minute. Only after a while, they decided to go home and rest. It had been a very long and stressful day.

Erika and Roberto had to deal with the bureaucratic issues. They had decided to cremate Mariana and needed special authorization to move the ashes to Colombia. But a legal case had also been opened for personal lesions.

Thanks to the testimonies of several witnesses, the same morning of the accident, the police managed to locate the person who was driving the car. She was a woman in her 30s, coming come after a night out. She had been drinking, and after the impact, she didn’t stop for even a second. She kept on driving. After a while, the police came to her house, identified her, and took her under arrest to a police station.

Erika and Roberto were assigned a government attorney, and two days after the accident, they had to testify in court. 

[Erika]: And I was sitting there crying. And suddenly a woman comes up to us, a woman around 50 years old, 55 years old. And she says, “Excuse me. Are you Mariana’s mother?” And I said, “Yes.” And she burst into tears. And she told me, “I am the mother of the woman who hit your daughter.”

[Camila]: It was a brief meeting, but the woman managed to tell her that her daughter was coming from a very bad depression. That she lived with her, had a nine-year-old son, and was unemployed. That her daughter spent her time locked indoors, doing nothing, but the night before, she had been happy when her daughter had told her that she finally wanted to go out, that she wanted to go out dancing. And that the next morning, when she came home, she had gone straight to her room without saying hello or telling her what had happened. Seeing that woman there, destroyed by what her daughter had done, moved Erika deeply. 

[Erika]: And I… my reaction was to stand up, hug her, and say, “Tell your daughter that we forgive her.”

I felt very sad for that woman. I could relate to her anguish as the mother of someone who had committed a tremendous, unjustifiable offense.

[Camila]: Erika thought about that nine-year-old boy, about the whole situation they were experiencing in that house.

[Erika]: And that’s why I couldn’t feel any kind of… hatred, no, because I said, “What is happening to me is a very unique pain, but so is theirs.” I mean, what this woman must be feeling is… it has to be worse in some way. To us, something just happened. But she did it. She caused it.

[Camila]: The legal process was just beginning, but at that point, they just wanted to go to Colombia. They would have to follow the case from a distance with the lawyer.

Together with their families, who had come to accompany them, they planted a pine tree at the site of the accident and placed a plaque in tribute to Mariana. And before leaving Chile they wanted to do one last thing: meet Mati.

Erika and Roberto went to the clinic where he was still hospitalized. A special place had been prepared for the meeting, an intimate place without journalists. They were surprised to see such a young couple.  

[Erika]: And we sat down to talk, to get to know each other, and they thanked us in every way they could, expressing their solidarity and their condolences. 

[Claudia]: I don’t think I was able to say much. And I talk a lot, but I don’t remember. I have the feeling that I didn’t say anything. No, not inadequate or adequate. It was just gratitude. I have that feeling. 

[Camila]: It was a warm, but at the same time, distant meeting. The doctors had told them that such meetings are not advisable. In fact, the confidentiality of donor and recipient information is stipulated by law. This is not only to guarantee the transparency of the system, but also to not interfere in the grieving process of the donor’s family and to not create a feeling of guilt in the recipient’s family. Anyway, both couples wanted to do it.

After talking for a while, Erika and Roberto went in to see Mati in Box 6, the glass house.  

[Erika]: And I got very close, and what I did was stroke his arm. I ran my hand over his arm, and the first thing he did was move it, and I said, “This is what I was waiting for all those days at the clinic with Mariana.” I would run my hand over her arm and she didn’t move it, she didn’t move it, she didn’t move it, and as soon as I stroked Matías very gently, his arm moved and I said, “Oh!” It was like, “Thank you, but I had been waiting for this for days.”

[Roberto Vélez]: Well, it helped me to somehow close the cycle of grief, being able to see that all this served a purpose.

[Camila]: They exchanged emails, and then was time to go to Colombia.

[Erika]: For me, the worst thing was taking off on that plane. I started to cry because I had been on many flights, we had come to Colombia, I had flown inside Australia, and Mariana was always on my lap, but instead I was traveling with a box on my lap.

[Camila]: Back in Bogotá, they held a ceremony as a tribute to Mariana. They found a church that allowed them to do something non-religious. Family and friends arrived, and Erika and Roberto showed a video of the moments they had filmed during the ten months they lived with her.

In Santiago, Mati was hospitalized while he recovered. Everything seemed to be working. After a month, he was sent home with a catheter, which was used to administer medication, and he was also examined periodically. He was immunosuppressed so that his body would not reject the transplanted liver. Great care had to be taken with his meals, and he needed to be kept in complete isolation to avoid catching any diseases.

He went through several complications, but gradually his health improved. On September 23, 2004, they celebrated his first birthday, and there were even a few guests.

In Bogotá, Erika and Roberto settled into his parents’ apartment. And shortly after, their second baby was born. It was a boy, and they named him Emilio.

Although at first she had not wanted to hear anything about the court case, after a while Erika started becoming obsessed with the investigation. She was still in contact with their lawyer, to whom they had given power of attorney. 

[Erika]: After going through all that initial shock and all that pain, I wanted justice to be done. It was that.

[Camila]: Erika asked him things, asked him for evidence. But over time, they learned that the woman spent only one night at the police station and that—because the offense is non-prison and she had no criminal record—she did not serve a sentence. Erika tried to forget about the case, but there were questions that she couldn’t get out of her head.  

[Erika]: So we were thinking all the time, “What if I had not gotten sick in Australia and we had arrived on the day we were supposed to arrive? What if I hadn’t stopped to tie my shoes? What would have happened if I had crossed that street on the red light?”

[Camila]: The questions have never gone away, but at that moment she had to deal with what was to come. She was now pregnant with her third child, and she felt that going back over the accident constantly was a source of suffering. When the baby, Martín, was born, she felt that she definitely had to turn the page. 

[Erika]: And at that moment I really thought… for me, Martín was the sense of justice, and I said, “I don’t need anything else.”

[Camila]: On July 2, 2004, a year after Mariana’s death, Erika had received an email from Claudia. She told her they were thinking a lot about them because of the anniversary, and she said that they had gone through difficult times with Mati, but that he was doing well. A few months later, Claudia wrote to her again because she wanted to tell her something: 

[Erika]: And she tells me, “We had a baby boy. He was born in January and his name is Martín.” And I thought, “This can’t be, this can’t be.” And I answer her, I tell her, “I also had a boy, and his name is Martín.” 

[Camila]: Claudia and Matías read Erika’s answer together.

[Matías]: Clau and I looked at each other and said, “We are connected in a way that we do not understand.” The only way to understand this story is by seeing it as a miracle.

[Camila]: Erika thought something similar.

[Erika]: It was so incredible that I said, “Yes, this is… this is one of those things where you feel like there are some chance occurrences, some coincidences; there is definitely a destiny that unites people.” And there was the proof, right?? 

[Camila]: After that, they kept in touch occasionally. Then, in 2018, Matías and Claudia stopped in Bogotá on their way to a vacation in Punta Cana. They had four children by then, and they told Erika and Roberto that they were in the city. The two families met in a park. Mati was 15 years old.

[Erika]: And these kids were running everywhere. Matías was sitting very quiet, very close to me, and I was kind of hugging him. He didn’t talk much. Very introverted.

[Camila]: Claudia told her that that morning, while she was getting ready, Mati was rushing his brothers. He was anxious to get going.

[Erika]: There came a moment when one of his brothers said to him, “What is the rush? Who are we going to see?” And Matías answered, “My other family.” And I burst into tears.

[Claudia]: And you know what? Mati has an affinity with Erika and with Roberto, an affinity he doesn’t have with us. Mati does not kiss us. Mati doesn’t even kiss me on my birthday. But it is to die for, seeing how he kissed Erika and Roberto. 

[Camila]: It was an emotional meeting for both families. They were together all day; and then Claudia, Matías and the children continued their journey.

They exchanged an email from time to time, or a WhatsApp message.

And they saw each other again on a very special date. It was in 2023, twenty years after the transplant, this time in Santiago de Chile. Claudia and Matías welcomed them into their home, and now they had a fifth child. And Mati, at age 20, was now in college. This is Mati:

[Mati]: We spent a long time together, almost the entire afternoon together. And it was fun because they were so happy to see me.

[Camila]: Of course, he was happy to see them as well. 

[Mati]: If it were not because they decided to donate, I, for one, would not be here. Maybe I’m wrong. I feel that in part they managed to cope with the grief of losing their daughter knowing that someone else lived because of it.

[Camila]: And no, he is not wrong. 

[Erika]: It is a very special thing that one feels, like a warmth in the soul. It’s like, “Wow, here she is, you know? There is a part of Mariana in this boy.” And we feel very close. For me, that… has no explanation, but at the same time it is what gives meaning to all this.

[Daniel]: The Guajardo and Vélez families remain in touch, but they still do not know when they will meet again in person.

After he got his medical degree, Matías specialized in liver transplants.

The new transplant law in Chile was not enacted until 2010, almost seven years after Mati’s transplant. It states that all Chileans over 18 years of age are organ donors when they die, unless they have expressed their wish not to be.

We invite you to inquire about organ donation in your countries and to register as donors.

This story was produced by Camila Segura and Aneris Casassus. Camila is the editorial director of Radio Ambulante. Aneris is a producer for Radio Ambulante and lives in Buenos Aires. Special thanks to Daniela Cruzat, senior producer of El Hilo, who did the interviews in Santiago, Chile.

This episode was edited by me. Bruno Scelza did the fact-checking. Sound design and music is by Andrés Azpiri.

The rest of the Radio Ambulante team includes Paola Alean, Lisette Arévalo, Pablo Argüelles, Lucia Auerbach, Adriana Bernal, Diego Corzo, Emilia Erbetta, Rémy Lozano, Selene Mazón, Juan David Naranjo, Melisa Rabanales, Natalia Ramírez, Barbara Sawhill, David Trujillo, Ana Tuirán, Elsa Liliana Ulloa, Luis Fernando Vargas and Desirée Yépez.

Carolina Guerrero is the CEO. 

Radio Ambulante is a podcast by Radio Ambulante Estudios, produced and mixed on the Hindenburg PRO program.

If you enjoyed this episode and want us to continue doing independent journalism about Latin America, support us through Deambulantes, our membership program. Visit radioambulante.org/donar and help us continue narrating the region.

Radio Ambulante tells the stories of Latin America. I’m Daniel Alarcón. Thanks for listening.