Utah girl reunites with emergency crew who saved her life

SALT LAKE CITY — It began with a trip to visit her grandparents over Christmas.

Three-year-old Estelle Santiago traveled with her family from Midway to Montevideo, Uruguay, in December. Her grandparents were serving a mission in the Uruguay Montevideo West Mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the family wanted to celebrate the holidays together.

About two weeks into the trip, Estelle began to feel sick. Her father, Michael Santiago, recalled that she "wasn't herself," and she got sicker and sicker.

On Jan. 5, her parents rushed her to the hospital after she woke up in the middle of the night vomiting. Doctors in Uruguay immediately went to work to save Estelle's life.

"As a father, you do everything for your child, right? But this was pure terror," Michael Santiago said.

Her condition was so severe that she began seizing in her father's arms at the hospital. Estelle quickly entered renal failure, followed closely by both respiratory and cardiac failure. Michael said she had initially contracted E. coli while in Uruguay, but doctors determined it had spiraled into hemolytic uremic syndrome.

"You could see the life leaving her body," Michael Santiago said.

The family reached out to medical professionals in the United States, desperate to bring her home to doctors in Utah. Both Michael Santiago and Estelle's mother, Ellie Santiago, credit the doctors at British Hospital of Montevideo in Uruguay with helping to save the life of their daughter, but also felt strongly that they needed to return home.

"I feel like my faith was all that I had to hold onto," Ellie Santiago said. "My entire world was crashing down. My daughter was literally dying. And the only place I could turn for peace, for hope ... was to turn to God and to pray. I truly believe that the collective prayers and fasting saved her life."

They contacted Intermountain Health in Utah and began the process of getting a medical flight to bring them home — a trip of more than 6,300 miles.

Brooke Hicks, a supervisor for Intermountain's air ambulance team, said that the process of obtaining a landing permit in Uruguay normally takes seven business days. "Estelle did not have seven business days for us to get to her," she said. "She was fighting for her life, and time was not on her side."

Teams worked with Estelle's family to contact members of Uruguay's government to expedite the permit process. After just 36 hours, the permit was approved, turning the medical mission from "if" to "how fast."

The aircraft departed within three days of the initial phone call from Uruguay, launching on Jan. 9. The flight overnighted in Peru before landing in Uruguay.

Dr. Jon Woods, a pediatric critical care physician at Primary Children's Hospital, worked with doctors in Uruguay to ensure that Estelle would make it home safely. The doctors warned that she was so sick that she might not survive the transport to Utah.

Woods said he was "deeply moved" by the efforts of the medical team and the care that Estelle was receiving in Uruguay. "This took a village," he said, citing the pharmacists, physicians, translators and others who all helped to bring Estelle home.

Rose Linsler, a flight nurse, said they learned about Estelle's plight on a Wednesday. "By early Friday morning, we were departing for Uruguay," she said, "and by that Sunday night, Estelle was in her ICU bed at Primary Children's Hospital getting the care she needed."

The flight left Uruguay on Jan. 11, landing in Peru for fuel before traveling via Texas to Salt Lake City. Estelle spent several weeks recovering in the hospital, transferring from the intensive care unit to the rehabilitation wing before she was finally able to go home.

Now, more than six months later, her parents said Estelle is mostly back to normal, tackling a few lingering problems but on track for a full recovery.

"We felt completely helpless as Estelle's condition spiraled out of control in Uruguay," Michael Santiago said. "The moment the Intermountain team landed there, we felt relief and gratitude beyond words — like the cavalry had arrived. We will never forget the overwhelming peace that washed over us when she was wheeled into her PICU room at Primary Children's Hospital. Although she wasn't out of the woods, we could finally breathe, knowing she was in the best possible hands."

Intermountain hosted a birthday celebration for Estelle on Wednesday, celebrating her recovery and giving the flight ambulance crew a chance to see her recovered. More than two dozen family members and health care workers gathered in front of the Bombardier Challenger 604 medical jet that helped bring Estelle and her family home.

The Santiago family thanked the medical team that cared for their daughter, and also thanked God for her recovery.

"Of course, she had the best care, the best people; the nurses and doctors were so inspired. Obviously she would not be here without them," Ellie Santiago said. "They did all the ground work, but I do believe that they were inspired and I believe that they were led and that God was there each step of the way. I'm just so, so grateful."

Elaine Watts, Estelle's great-grandmother, also credited God with her recovery. "It's truly a series of miracles that that little girl is here."

At Wednesday's celebration, now 4-year-old Estelle was too shy to say anything, but her father shared words that Estelle had been practicing at home. "She wanted to say, 'Thank you for saving my life, we love you.'"

The family was then allowed to explore the jet, take photos and enjoy cupcakes. And Estelle was gifted a toy version of the medical jet.

Adam Horning, Intermountain's vice president of medical transport, summed up the event with a simple question: "It's fun to get to celebrate miracles, isn't it?"

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