CASTILLO-SMITH FAMILY
Teen awaiting lung transplant could use laptop
By ANA M. VALDES
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Like many other 15-year-olds, Kaiya Castillo-Smith enjoys manicures and playing Wii games, and has more friends on Facebook than she can keep up with.
You’d never know that beneath her permanent smile, there’s a teenager who is at the top of the list for a lung transplant.
“She’s always smiling, laughing. Unless she’s really sick, it’s hard to realize that her lungs are operating at like 12 or 14 percent,” said Kisha McIntosh, Kaiya’s mother.
Diagnosed with cystic fibrosis a few days before her first Christmas in 1994, Kaiya has always shared her school and playtime with difficult hours of breathing treatments and over 20 daily medications.
She’s attended only a few days of her freshman year at Boynton Beach High, and must take online courses to keep up with her classmates.
A transplant is Kaiya’s only option. Because of this, her doctors recommended she and her mother move to Gainesville seven months ago to be near Shands Hospital in case she receives the call that a donor has been located.
McIntosh had to quit her job as property manager of her apartment complex in Boynton Beach to move to Gainesville. She and her daughter have used most of their savings, and although Medicaid pays for most of Kaiya’s treatments and hospitalization, McIntosh worries she will not be able to afford post-transplant housing in Gainesville.
She is struggling to pay rent and utilities for her Boynton Beach apartment, which she has kept so her 6-year-old daughter Sydni has a place to live.
Kaiya needs a new laptop to keep up with her schoolwork and would like board games and video games to make her long hospital stays more enjoyable.
“In this economy, many people may want to give but they can’t. Offer up a prayer instead,” McIntosh said. “It may not give her lungs, but it’s one less thing we have to worry about.”
As for Kaiya, she’s currently in and out of the hospital, but keeps busy planning her Sweet 16 party, or as she calls it, her Post-Transplant Party.
“You should see the list of everybody,” says her mother. “I just can’t wait to see her dance again. She hasn’t been able to do that in a long time.”
KAIYA’S WISH
Kaiya and her mother, Kisha, need money to pay for food, rent, gas, clothing and other needs. Kaiya also wants a laptop computer to help with her schooling, as well as a webcam so she can chat with family and friends in Boynton Beach while she waits for a transplant in Gainesville. Nintendo DS and Wii games, as well as board games, keep Kaiya entertained during long hospital stays. The family is also asking for a video camera, so Kaiya can document her experiences with cystic fibrosis and help others in the future.
