“If you want to be a father or a mother, you have to find a way around everything.” Pablo Gutiérrez and Mercedes Izcue ended, in the midst of a pandemic, with the adoption of Luz Milagros, a girl just over two years old who has heart disease and two heart operations.
The Santarroseña couple was one of the promoters in the country and the province of the assisted fertilization law. At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, they called on the population to respect the quarantine. Now, they asked again that the health recommendations and protocols be complied with. “The other time we went out to ask to stay at home, now too, take care of yourself that way you take care of me,” Gutiérrez asked.
The couple wants to carry a message to the families who are listed in the Single Adoption Registry or who are starting a fertilization treatment. “We want to give hope to people who want to adopt because there are children waiting and, in addition, at this time we must continue to take care of ourselves,” he explained.
A few days before the start of the quarantine, the family received the notification that the monitoring of the Single Registry of Adoptants of La Pampa had ended and could start the adoption trial of the little Luz. “The pandemic caught us. We were unable to present the process with the lawyer and everything had to be done online but it took eight months. When it ended we had to take an appointment at the Registry. We went, they took the photo to light and it took 44 days and the DNI arrived, “he said.
Remembering the moment when they opened the envelope with the girl’s ID, Pablo Gutiérrez was moved. “Mercedes received the envelope and waited for me to come home from work. The three of us opened it together and we were moved to read what Luz Milagros Gutiérrez Izcue says. In our struggle, which is long, Luz arrives and as we always say: she us she saved and we also saved her, “he said.
Fertilization
Before making the adoption decision to have a son or daughter, the couple had to resort to assisted fertilization. “With Mercedes, the woman puts the body in but we both look for the child, we lost a natural pregnancy. She had to undergo chemotherapy because it brought about this problem. She did ten sessions and managed to recover. After that we did three fertilization treatments in Buenos Aires. One was with the savings we had; the second, we asked family members for help, and the third, we took out a loan. In the last one we had an embryo frozen. It was implanted and Mercedes had a heart attack and spent ten days in the clinic She had to be subjected to a study to see if she needed a stend or a catheter and that was the brake. So far we come, we said, “he recalled.
In the midst of these attempts, they began the fight for the assisted fertilization law that guarantees treatment in public hospitals to people who do not have social work. “We were the referents of Sumate La Pampa. We collected 12,761. We were the seventh province with the highest number of signatures in a request for a popular initiative to request the treatment of the law in Congress. Once it was passed, we had to fight in the province for the Chamber of Deputies to sanction an adhesion law. Governor (Oscar) Jorge approved it at that time. It is so that those who do not have social work have the opportunity, through Public Health, to start treatment, which is expensive, “he said.
Adoption
Pablo explained that they were recorded in the adoptive registry for five years until they were called. “After five years of being registered and a long struggle on our backs, we fulfilled the dream. They sent us an email that there was a girl with heart disease and we said yes,” he said.
He acknowledged that the adoption process in his case “was very fast, with a pandemic and everything took about ten months.” “In our case it was very fast. We did everything properly and they behaved like ten and always respecting Luz and seeking the best well-being. She is a normal child, she has heart disease and has certain care but she is perfect. 20 days ago we had the control, always with the protocols, and with shifts with Dr. Vallejos, the cardiologist. He is ten. He has two open heart surgeries and the third is missing, which is going to be at Garraham with Dr. Cornelís. operate, but due to the pandemic she preferred to hold on. If she continues as she is going, they told us not to worry that by 2022 we can wait for surgery, “he said.
He asked that judicial officials “make decisions about adoption procedures faster because there are many children waiting.”
“I tell the families to come to the registry, they always treated us well. They explained us well, we removed all doubts,” he said.
“If you have a dream and you want to be parents, you have to find a way around everything. For us, the limit was Mercedes’ heart attack. Along the way, we achieved the assisted fertilization law, because the law helped, there are many Pampa boys out of that law. We are proud. There are many people without social work who were able to start treatment at Molas and from there go to Buenos Aires and have their children. The desire was always, always was, it was enormous and we looked for the back, we are fighters, as Luz Milagros is a terrible fighter, “he said.
Finally, he highlighted “the great human work they had at home. Luz arrived at our house well thanks to the impeccable work of the Home for Children and Adolescents.”
“Take care of yourself so you take care of me”
As they did last March, Pablo Gutiérrez and Mercedes Izcue again asked that people take care of the coronavirus. On that occasion, with the strictest quarantine, they asked “stay at home”; Now they said: “Take care of yourself that way you take care of me.” “Now it’s not that we’re not afraid, but now we know how to take care of ourselves. We have contact, when possible, with my in-laws, my parents. Luz has contact with her cousins. She knows how to use her chinstrap and alcohol gel. We get together. It is costing us like anyone else staying at home, but hey, we have no other choice, we have to take care of ourselves. We understand that it is the only way because the other time we went out to ask to stay at home, now too, take care that way you take care of me me “, assured Pablo Gutiérrez.
Asked about how they are going through the pandemic, he explained that “it was very crazy. At the beginning, a terrible fear because Luz is at risk, because Mercedes too, due to the heart attack and high blood pressure. In my work they gave me 45 days to be at home in March. We went through it at first with great fear. We did not even go out to the sidewalk. Like the vast majority, we did not know what we were exposed to. We did not know about the coronavirus. It was good for us to be at home because we managed to strengthen the bond , get to know each other, teach her, learn to be parents. In that sense it came to us from ten, we took advantage of it. Once I started working, Mercedes was left, because she lost her job, “he said.
–
