By AUBRIE GEORGE | The Marlton Telegram
Emily Grace Mangione has been through more in her nine years of life than most people will endure in their lifetime.
Emmie, as she is known to her family and friends, was born in Seoul, South Korea, with several congenital heart and lung defects. She was also diagnosed with DiGeorge Syndrome — a rare congenital disease characterized by a history of recurrent infection, heart defects, unique facial features and more than 185 anomalies — many of which Emmie has.
When Emmie was 14 months old, the Mangione family of Marlton adopted her and brought her to America.
Her adoptive mother, Kim, who is a single mother of four other children, said she knew of Emmie’s medical issues when she adopted her but thought it was only more of a reason that she needed a family.
Kim describes her daughter as super sweet and very friendly.
“She loves church and she loves seeing everybody at church,” She said. “She loves to color. That’s like her favorite thing. She actually makes so many drawings that I started to turn them into greeting cards.”
Emmie’s doctors didn’t expect her to live to her second birthday.
In November, Emmie will turn 10.
“She is absolutely the strongest person I’ve ever met, that I’ve ever heard of,” Kim said. “She’s been through things I couldn’t even imagine dealing with and she does it with a smile. She looks at doctors who basically are torturing her because they have to in order to save her life — and when they’re finished, she says, ‘Thank you.’
“She’s just so full of joy — such a sweet girl.”
Already, Emmie has endured several open-heart surgeries, suffered cardiac arrest and strokes, and has severe neurological damage.
She can no longer eat or drink, requiring a tube to feed into her small intestine, which has also required many surgeries due to complications.
She also suffers from poor bone density, leaving her with several bone fractures at a time.
However, Emmie still has a long road ahead of more surgeries and medical hardships ahead of her, Kim said.
Currently, Emmie is in a full body cast because of compression fractures in her spine. She’s been in the cast for about 14 months and will have to be in it for at least another year, Kim said.
To help raise money for Emmie and her family, The Coastline Restaurant and Bar on Brace Road is holding a fund raiser on Tuesday, Sept. 1. The event will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. and a $10 ticket includes a buffet, DJ, $1 drinks, a Chinese auction and other raffles. The event is for ages 21 and up.
All of the money raised during the event will go to Emmie’s fund, which assists Emmie’s family with the financial burdens brought on by her continued health challenges and to help support the family home.
For more information about Emmie or to purchase tickets for the upcoming fund raiser, visit her Web site at www.emmie.info.
See this week’s print edition of The Telegram for the full story.
