HOUSTON – Just days before Christmas, Martha Nunez wasn’t shopping for presents, she had a far more painful task at hand.
Instead, Martha prayed at the gravesite of her youngest child. Baby Aiyana, who died just eight months into her all too short life from several horrific problems involving her heart.
“I found out what that was, which is a hole in her heart, which is her blood. Instead of going to the heart, it was pumping into her lungs,” said Nunez. “As I prayed myself, my family, for her to live longer. They disconnected her to see if she could breathe, but she couldn’t.”
Doctors told Martha that little Aiyana wouldn’t live more than a week, but she refused to give up on her child, praying for a miracle at her bedside. But in April, little Aiyana passed away.
“I ask her to go to my dreams because I cannot. I try to dream of her and I can’t. And what keeps me going is my little ones here. They’re the ones that keep me going,” Nunez said.
Now months later, with her heart still broken, Martha soldiers on taking care of her other four children. 6-year-old Jose who has autism, 4-year-old Rosa, 16-year-old Fabian, and tiny Emma, who is 7-years-old and was born with Down Syndrome. She also suffers from a rare stomach disorder that forbids her from eating anything.
Martha must feed Emma special nutrients through a feeding tube in her stomach.
As a single mother with no help, Martha has to scramble as fast as she can just to care for her four children and all of their needs.
“I do what I can for them each day. But deep, deep inside I’m still hurt,” she said. “My daughter has Down Syndrome. Being a mom, being a nurse to her, and with an autistic child as well, it’s hard.”
All of which means this Christmas holiday, Martha has absolutely nothing to give her loving children.
“It’s hard. They ask for stuff. I try to give them what I can, but I prefer to give them food and kind of give them a toy or something because I know food is what they need. I just try to show them the love and I can take care of them. That’s all I can give them right now,” she said.
Watch the video in the player above to see how KPRC 2′s Bill Spencer and the Spencer Solves It Team grant a miracle for Nunez and her four children!