Rute is a 14 month old baby from Ethiopia. After many months of bureaucratic red tape she finally arrived in Jacksonville on August 7. That day Hilda flew to New York where she met Rute who was arriving from her long journey from Africa. Evaluation on the 8th sadly demonstrated that Rute's heart was more complicated than initially expected and that she would need 2 operations as opposed to a transcatheter treatment. She has a very large hole between the pumping chambers of the heart, an abnormal connection between the main vessel to the lungs and the main vessel to the body and finally severe narrowing of the main vessel to the body (aorta). On August 15 she underwent heart catheterization to "fine tune" her diagnosis and had her first operation on the 18th to repair of the aorta. The plan is to work on Rute's nutrition and complete her open heart repair in approximately 2 months during which time she will stay in Jacksonville.