Three-year-old Helianny and her parents have had to endure constant mockery simply for being alive. And cruel people say her parents should have aborted her because she is “ugly.”
Helianny was born with numerous health problems, including facial deformities that protruded from her head like a crown, the Daily Mail reports.
Her mother, Soleannys Lugo, 34, of San Cristobal, Venezuela, said doctors repeatedly urged her to abort her daughter and called Helianny a “vegetable.” But Lugo refused to listen. She insisted that her daughter’s life was worth living.
“I believe Helianny came to this world to teach us not to give up, to stop complaining about nonsense, to live one day at a time, to be grateful with what we have,” Lugo said.
The little girl, who celebrates her 3rd birthday this summer, was not supposed to live past birth. Before her birth, doctors discovered that she had hydrocephalus and numerous deformities to the brain, eyes, nose, mouth, feet and fingers, according to the report.
Like many parents in similar situations, Lugo said her doctors recommended that she abort her unborn daughter several times.
“Even though we were told she was a vegetable, I assured them she was not because she kicked me,” her mother said. “I decided to give her a chance to live. I loved her with my soul and with all my heart.”
Helianny survived birth and then four surgeries, including two brain operations, the report states. Throughout those ordeals, Lugo said her daughter was a little “warrior.”
It was Lugo who initially struggled to accept her daughter’s medial conditions.
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Here’s more from the report:
Speaking of her daughter’s recovery, Miss Lugo said: ‘The first few days I did not want anyone to see her, while I was accepting what was happening.
‘I did not want her to be seen as an alien or for anyone to pity her.
‘A few days after I accepted she was different. I do not regret having her and I love her so much that if I had to remake the decision I would do it all again.
‘Many people bless Helianny and wish her a good future, we always appreciate that.
‘There is also a minority that attacks me, saying that I was irresponsible to have continued with the pregnancy.
She added: ‘They say that I did not think about the future of Helianny and that if I should have stopped to think what will happen to her when neither her dad nor I are here.
The family still gets cruel comments sometimes, but Lugo makes sure her daughter knows that she is valuable and loved.
“I believe Helianny came to this world to teach us not to give up,” she said.
