Nili (pronounced “nee-lee”) Mistero is a 31 year-old Palawano mother of five that we’ve known since she was 4 years old. She was one of our daughter Elisa’s best friends growing up. Now she’s our main clinic worker and also one of our key translation helpers.

She was just brought to Puerto today because she was very sick. She had to be carried for 3 hours in a homemade stretcher over the mountains, and then had to ride a shuttle van for 6 hours. That trip is not even fun when a person feels well!

Our doctor friend here in town examined her and immediately had her admitted to the hospital. Her breathing was very fast and her right lung sounded full. Her blood pressure was dangerously high. At the hospital, another doctor came in and took over. They suspected pneumonia at first, but she had no fever. Then an xray showed an extremely enlarged heart, about double the size you would expect in her tiny chest cavity. This means there has been a serious underlying problem for quite some time, which has only just now manifested these symptoms. The doctor said you don’t develop an enlarged heart overnight.

So they have her on oxygen and are running other tests like thyroid level, etc., to determine what the underlying causes are and how to treat it all. They’re already warning us that is will probably not be quick or easy to see her brought back to good health.