Top: Debra Martinez holding an infant Dulce during her first introduction to the family. Bottom: Dulce's surgeon Dr. Kevin Hopkins with Dulce and her parents (left) and Debra (right) after her surgery. Top Left: A recent photo of Dulce with her fully healed lip.

Saved by a Stranger

Posted October 27, 2011

DEBRA MARTINEZ sent one email. It was a note with a simple request: Can you help?

Debra and her husband Fernando operate Rancho dos Countries, a non-profit organization based in both Del Rio, Texas, and Zaragoza, Mexico. They established it to distribute food, water, clothes and school supplies into Mexican communities that need their help. Additionally, they set up religious revivals and gift-giving events for children in eight different towns across the border.

At one of their back-to-school events, a woman with an infant approached Debra and asked for help. The child was named Dulce Guadalupe Gonzalez Dominguez, and she had a terribly severe bilateral cleft lip and palate. Dulce was very thin because her condition prevented her from nursing properly.

“Her mouth was just lying wide open,” says Debra. “She was literally starving to death.”

Debra took a picture of Dulce and then emailed it out to her network.

In Birmingham, Ala., Tonya Hall, one of Debra’s friends, opened the email.

“The girl was the same age as my baby,” says Tonya. “My daughter had a perfect smile and no nourishment issues. I just felt so sad looking at that little girl.”

Tonya couldn’t get Dulce’s image out of her mind. That morning, she in turn emailed a few people she knew who she thought could help. It sparked a chain reaction. More forwarded emails and phone calls all about Dulce. 

One of the calls Tonya made was to Stan Brock of Remote Area Medical. Stan founded Remote Area Medical, which supports medical missions—delivering supplies and medical care—to some of the most remote areas of the world. Stan, who is known for doing tremendous charitable work around the world and in the United States, proved to be both a great resource and the link needed to connect Dulce to her life-changing surgeon. Stan referred his friend Dr. Kevin Hopkins, a surgeon in Corpus Christi, Texas.  

In no time, Tonya got a phone call from Dr. Hopkins. “He said he could help Dulce,” says Tonya. “I put him in touch with Debra, and within 24 hours, it was rolling.”

Dr. Hopkins was quick to offer his services, but that really wasn’t surprising. In his career, he’s taken over 40 medical trips to countries all over the world—including Africa and South America—performing surgeries on people in need. Dr. Hopkins is grateful for what he has, doesn’t take much for granted, and gives back when he can.

“The way I look at it, it was a geographical accident that I was born where I was, and Dulce was born where she was,” he says. “If the situation was reversed, I would hope someone would do it for me.”

Of course, connecting Dr. Hopkins with Dulce was not an easy matter. Debra and Fernando worked with the American consulate and agreed to be responsible for Dulce and her parents as they entered the United States.

“We prayed, doors were opened, and we got them across,” says Debra.

In all, Dr. Hopkins performed two surgeries on Dulce in Corpus Christi and then a third at a Mexican border town called Ciudad Acunia. Because Dulce’s family had no money to pay for the healthcare, the surgery was pro bono and funds were raised to cover any of the hospital costs. During this entire time, Debra kept sending update emails to everyone, including Tonya, on Dulce’s progress through each of the surgeries.

Kevin last saw Dulce about six months ago, and she needs one final surgery on her nose. But she’s so much better. She’s growing. Slowly putting on weight. Thriving and not just surviving.

“Many people looked strangely at her before they operated on her,” says Dulce’s mother Esmeralda Dominguez. “But to me, it never mattered, because she is an angel to me. And now that she has been operated on, she is just another healthy child that plays with other children.”

Reflecting on it all, what amazes Tonya is that she almost deleted Debra’s email. It was just one of many she was reading that morning. But she didn’t. She took a few minutes out of her life, and that ended up saving another.

“Strangers came together for someone else,” says Tonya, who wishes some day she can meet Dulce in person. “With all the bad in the world, there’s still some good.”

For more information on these organizations please visit: www.ranchodoscountries.com, www.ramusa.org, and www.dchstx.org.

TONYA HALL is an associate with Regions. 

A special note: This story is a See the Good story contest winner.

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