Benjamin Gutierrez was an infant when his parents, Juan Gutierrez and Maria Torres, began to notice his strange behavior. It started with occasional sleeping spells and his face turning red while he ate.

Timothy Torres, 22, has suffered from chronic kidney disease his entire life. He sustained damage to his kidneys while in his mother’s womb, leading to him being born with posterior urethral valves – a blockage in his urinary tract. Torres’ first kidney transplant took place when he was 6 years old.

When Lina St. Preux, 44, was six months pregnant, her doctor informed her of devastating news – her baby had a congenital heart defect.

In 2016, Ruby Theophile, 33, delivered a stillborn son after a challenging pregnancy. Coupled with previous accidents that led to multiple abdominal procedures, this loss led her to believe she would never give birth to her own child.

When Claire La Roche, a practicing nurse, became pregnant with her third child, her wish was to have a vaginal birth after delivering her first two babies via C-section.

Seven months ago, Maya Ilieva and Kalin Kamenov didn’t know if their 6-year-old son, Venelin Maev, would be alive today. Originally from Bulgaria, Venelin was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

Yelsi Consuelo Sosa Fermín was just 19 weeks pregnant when she was given the news all expecting mothers dread – there was something wrong with her baby. During a scheduled ultrasound, a doctor noticed the baby’s heart was beating too fast.

When Christina Belboda looks at her son, Zayne Obileye, she’s thankful to have him in her life after he nearly died. In October 2018, when Belboda picked up her then 13-month-old son from her local daycare, she knew something was wrong with him.

Ella Chase was in the middle of her gymnastics season, getting ready for a state competition, when she began feeling a pain in her back. “Nothing I did was making it better, but I felt I had to push through the pain,” Ella said.