Family donates Our Lady of Guadalupe artwork to Barrow
Christmas 2010 was a busy time for Maria Claudina Gasque Toraya, 25, of Merida Yucatan, Mexico. Maria had recently combined her marketing degree and her baking talent to start a business specializing in homemade cookies and cupcakes.
On Dec. 22, Maria was completing several holiday orders when she suddenly complained of a severe headache and vomited. Realizing that this was no ordinary headache, Maria’s mother, Lupita, drove her to the hospital. There, physicians discovered that an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) had ruptured in Maria’s brain. An AVM is an abnormal connection between the arteries and veins in the brain.
The AVM was so large and dangerous that Maria was flown to Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix for care. Surgeons there first attempted to cauterize the AVM, but when that failed, Maria was scheduled for surgery. On Dec. 23, Robert Spetzler, MD, led a neurosurgical team in removing the abnormality from Maria’s brain.
Nineteen days later, Maria was discharged from Barrow with only a few reminders of her health scare—a scar and short-term memory problems. “Dr. Spetzler said she’d be back to normal in three months,” said Alonso Gasque, Maria’s father. “He said, ‘Don’t worry. Her memory is going to come back.’”
The family praised the care Maria received at Barrow, including the many arrangements made by Perla Flores, International Concierge Manager. “I felt for them. I really did. It was dark and cold and stormy the night they flew in. I put myself in their shoes, and knew I’d want someone to help me if I were them.”
To thank Barrow and St. Joseph’s, Lupita presented the hospital with a life-sized laser replica of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that appeared on the tilma, or cloak, of Juan Diego in 1531. The cloak is enshrined at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.
“When I brought my daughter here, I asked that she be healed,” said Lupita, who found a small version of Our Lady in the Meditation Room at Barrow, where she went to pray. “I wanted to donate this picture so that people who are here and believe in her and have problems could pray to her. It was hard for me to let go of her, but I think she will help a lot of people here.”
