‘With the second opinion from SJD, we were able to correct our daughter’s diagnosis and improve her treatment’

In 2020, Eva, a 12-year-old girl from Mexico, started showing unusual symptoms that worried her family. It all started with blood in her urine which, at first, the family attributed to a run-of-the-mill infection. ‘We thought it was just something temporary,’ recalls her father, Karl Zimmermann, ‘but little by little the doctors in Mexico showed us that the disease was more serious than we’d thought’.

After many tests, Mexican specialists suspected vasculitis (irritation and swelling of the blood vessels) and a kidney disease, causing the kidney to fail due to a dangerous build-up of fluid, electrolytes and waste products. With this diagnosis, Eva started treatment to help contain the disease.

Nevertheless, her symptoms persisted, as did the family's uncertainty. ‘We reached a point where things became very complicated,’ explains Karl. ‘In Mexico, we didn't have the resources to do more in-depth research to find out what was causing the disease and reach a solid diagnosis’, he adds. As a result, Eva's family decided to seek a second medical opinion.

Second medical opinion at the SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital

With physicians from the Hospital Español de México, where Eva was being treated, the family contacted the International Patients Department at the SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital. ‘It was a very simple process. We presented her case, forwarded all of the necessary information and we were soon given dates to travel that were tailor-made to suit our circumstances and those of the professionals from the various departments we were going to see,’ recalls the father.

In Barcelona, Eva was assessed by a multidisciplinary team and underwent several tests to reach a diagnosis and establish the current condition of her disease. The results that began to come to light were related to an investigation into rare diseases that was in progress at the time. This shed further light on the situation. Staff at the SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital detected that, although Eva did indeed have a kidney disease, it was very inactive. As such, instead of receiving immunosuppressant treatment, they instead recommended focusing treatment on maintaining the kidney function she had left.

Nowadays, Eva is stable. Physicians continued working on her case because, even though she had no clear diagnosis for her rare disease, she still required monitoring. For now, Eva is taking less medication and is monitored jointly by professionals from both countries.

Karl Zimmermann rates the care they received very highly. ‘We were so impressed with the experience and the professionalism of the specialists at the SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital when it came to research and conducting complex studies,’ comments Karl. He also notes that ‘we received really compassionate care and we know that, should we ever need to do so, we can come back.’