From the moment Andrea Lopez was born, her fate should’ve been sealed. The fact that she’s still alive today is, according to her, nothing short of a miracle and she lives her life accordingly.
Lopez is a cancer survivor whose health problems began at birth. She was born with cirrhosis, a liver condition that damages cells and causes scar tissue to form. Because of this, the liver can’t work properly. Lopez needed a liver transplant, but this procedure wasn’t performed in El Salvador, her home country.
“They ended up flying me to Miami,” said Lopez. “My liver was not functioning anymore. It was the first liver transplant from live-to-live person made in South Florida.”
Lopez’s sister donated half of her liver for the procedure. The surgery was successful but Lopez was on countless medications afterwards, and this caused cancer to develop.
She was barely a year old at the time.
Lopez had lymphoma in the stomach and the right lung. She never underwent chemotherapy or medication for cancer. It was a matter of weeks before her cancer seemed to heal itself on its own.
“From that, it was a lot of medication that didn’t allow me to grow,” said Lopez. “I was the smallest of all my classmates. I didn’t have hair. My teeth were really yellow. I was really skinny, but my stomach was always bloated.”
Lopez had to be extra cautious as a child. She was more sensitive to bacteria, so when it came to field trips with her classmates, she couldn’t go.
Despite the obstacles Lopez had to face and the opportunities she had to miss out on, her parents tried their best to make things normal for her. Lopez recalls her mother being particularly supportive, especially when she felt discouraged about not having hair.
“She went to the salon and cut all her hair,” said Lopez. “She was the one saying, ‘Oh but you’re beautiful, oh but I envy your hair. I want to have your hair.’ So that kind of started building up my personality and the way that I am now.”
Lopez calls her mother the key to how this story played out. When Lopez got her initial diagnosis as a baby, the doctors were ready to let her die. There were too many factors that made the process difficult, but her mother wouldn’t give up. Even later on, when Lopez had a second cancer scare, her mother had faith that things would be OK.
She was confident her daughter was going to survive.
“She always says, ‘God never does something in half. If he’s going to do something, he’s going to do it completely.’ And that’s the way I see it.”
Lopez had to take multiple pills every morning to keep herself healthy. Because of the experimental nature of her procedure, the doctors needed her to follow every step correctly, for her own benefit as much as theirs. They looked at her as a model for future procedures.
When she was about 10 years old, she grew sick of the side effects, and secretly stopped taking her medication. It took three months for her parents to notice, but once they did, it was clear that she was fine without the pills. She has to take a blood test every December, but otherwise lives a normal life.
Lopez’s case was a constant series of circumstances that shouldn’t have worked out, but did. Many others who had the same surgery either didn’t survive it or continued to take medication today. Where medicine fails to explain what healed her, Lopez turns to her faith.
Because of her medication, Lopez is unable to drink alcohol, although she is able to enjoy a glass of wine every now and then. Despite this, she still loves to go out to clubs and dance. She has so much energy that people usually see her dancing and assume she’s drunk. In reality, she just loves to take any chance to have fun.
“In my case, I don’t need alcohol. I’m the one who makes me happy. I don’t need extra stuff to make me happy, or to make me act a certain way, because I know who I am and I know where I’m going in life.”
Lopez is a strong believer in living life to the fullest. This can come in many ways, but she believes helping others is a way for people to become more aware of what they have in life.
“If we really try to engage and care for others, that’s when you start realizing, ‘I have this, I should be grateful for this.’ Just try to help others as much as you can, and you’ll start to feel good.”
This is the philosophy Lopez lives by. After everything she’s been through in life, she’s happy for the opportunities that university presents and never takes anything she’s been given for granted.
“I’m not here in vain,” said Lopez. “I have a purpose in life. I’m still trying to figure out what that purpose is, what [God] wants me to do here, but if I can help others, then I’m happy with that.”
