Imperial Valley 'miracle baby' defies all odds

IMPERIAL — As 2-year-old Cadence Martinez walked around her family’s living room looking for her next toy to play with, one wouldn’t think that at such a young age she has come close to death many times.

Imperial residents Amanda and David Martinez have struggled with Cadence’s health since before she was born. Complications surfaced when the young mother was only five months pregnant during an ultrasound to determine the baby’s sex.

Cadence was born Jan. 8, 2008, with numerous heart and internal organ complications including a double-outlet right ventricle, which means both parts of her right ventricle are joined. She also suffers from pulmonary vein stinosis, where constricted veins prevent regular blood flow throughout the body, and heterotaxy, where the organs in her chest and abdomen are reversed.

She has no spleen and when she was born, her stomach was one-fifth the size of a normal newborn’s stomach.

“We’ve been through tons of doctors,” Amanda Martinez said of her daughter’s list of rare defects. “There is one main doctor that we see in San Diego that knows her well, but we’ve seen various specialists.”

Martinez said a lot of doctors were surprised, not only that she survived the birth and the initial life support and first surgery, but that she made it to her first and second year birthdays.

“We had birthdays for her every month from the time she was about 5 months old because we didn’t know how long she would live,” Martinez said. “She got so used to them that every time we would go to any birthday party she thought it was for her,” she laughed, noting that eventually Cadence understood that other people have birthdays, too. continue