For eight years I have corresponded with a woman from Venezuela.  Her name is Jacqueline Ogilvie and she is a retired surgeon in that God-forsaken hellhole.

Although I’ve offered to send Jacqueline care packages, coffee, sugar, oil all she's ever asked me was to pray.

Recently, I contacted her to ask how she was doing, because I knew the people of Venezuela were suffering from no water, no food, no toilet paper, no medicine, no electricity – no nothing. 

After waiting in line in government-run supermarkets, 30 million people, led by socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro, suffer the ravages of empty grocery shelves. 

Worst of all, the socialized medicine that American progressives tout as being a panacea, in Venezuela, is a certain death sentence.

Even still, the only thing Jacqueline ever expressed concern about was one little baby boy named Jose Manuel Villamizar Zambrano, whose family contacted her begging for help.

Jose is 5 months old and in need of a complicated heart operation.  The baby must receive treatment between the ages of 4 and 6 months.  At the time of the family’s correspondence with Dr. Ogilvie, Jose was 5 months and 20 days.

According to the letter, when the parents brought the child to the  “free” hospital for care, because of old broken down equipment and the high cost of treating him, he and his parents were turned away.

Put simply, “free” health care sent a baby boy, who could be easily saved, home to die.

Here is a portion of the letter to Dr. Ogilvie, which said:

From the hospital Central Tachira sent in February 2016, a folder with all documents to the Children Cardiologico baby in Montalban - Caracas. We were there on Tuesday, 26 April this year and was informed that the hospital was not operating as it had damaged the equipment to catheterization and operation entity.

“Damaged equipment”?

Apparently, the glorious free socialized medicine provided by the government of Venezuela is not so glorious after all.

In order for Jose to live, he needs care at a private clinic.  According to Dr. Jacqueline, if a person in Venezuela cannot afford care at a private clinic in Venezuela, “You’re dead!”

The problem is that in Venezuela, where fairness reigns supreme, the people without toilet paper and running water do not have the means to buy food, let alone save the life of a dying baby.

It is not that Venezuela is by any means naturally poor.  It has the world’s largest oil reserves, topping even Saudi Arabia.  But socialist politics-in-command management has resulted in declining oil production, to the point that the country must now import oil.  And unlike Saudi Arabia, almost anything grows there, fed by plenty of sunshine and adequate water.  Venezuela is one of the richest couintries on Earth in terms of natural resources.

According to Dr. Maria Capecchi, the urgent “cataterismo diagnostic” and subsequent surgery for little Jose will cost $10,000 at the Clinic Santa Sofia.

I’ve never raised money for anything; I wasn’t even good at selling Girl Scout Cookies with my daughter.  Moreover, I know, this is just one baby among millions of suffering children all over the world in need of help. 

However, for me, trying to save this baby is a privilege.  What an opportunity to tell the Venezuelan government that for this one baby boy – just this one – the socialism death cult will not have the last say.

That is why I decided to do something I would never do.  I put up a GoFundMe page to raise the money to try to save a baby who lives in a country far away. 

Not only is Jose’s plight heartbreaking, but it delivers a sobering truth as to what might lie ahead for America’s children if the socialism the left is pushing actually becomes a reality.

If you’re interested in helping keep Jose alive, go to the GoFundMe page entitled A Heart for Jose and give what you can.  Every little bit will help.

Many thanks to American Thinker’s big heart.

Blessings!