6-year-old in desperate need of heart transplant

Ka’zia Delco was just 6 when she collapsed on the playground at Maricopa Elementary School in December. 

She was airlifted out of Maricopa to Phoenix Children’s Hospital. There, she was diagnosed with restrictive cardiomyopathy, or severe cardiac heart block, a progressive disease.  

Today, her Alterra parents, Andrea Delco, a nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix, and Bashu Delco, a longtime employee with Southwest Airlines, tensely await a heart transplant for their little girl.  

Hanging over their heads is the threat — Ka’zia is at risk of dying at any time. 

“Our whole life has been literally uprooted,” Andrea Delco said today from Ka’zia’s Childrens Hospital room, where she has stayed for a month.  

The Delco parents live in the hospital and alternate shifts with their youngest daughter. 

Ka’zia and her family have one saving grace in her favor: she has a 1A rating as a heart transplant recipient her age and size. It is the highest rating of need for a transplant patient. 

“We have been here a month already and there are children here who have been waiting six to eight months for a heart transplant,” Andrea Delco said. “We’re one of many kids on this floor.” 

Once a patient gets a heart transplant, the patient can go home in two weeks. But heart disease is a lifetime threat despite the transplant. Transplant patients typically lead lives of caution and medications. 

The Delco family has lived in Maricopa for six years and has been involved in the community as volunteers. 

Andrea Delco was volunteering at Maricopa Elementary School the day her daughter, a student there, fainted on the playground. 

“Right when I stepped on to the playground, I saw her having an episode,” Ka’zia’s mother said. The girl was rushed into the office and 9-1-1 was called. 

The family’s Alterra neighbor, Samantha Estrada, expressed her concern for the family. 

“They’re desperate,” she said of Ka’zia’s transplant. “She needs it immediately.” 

Ka’zia has a profile for donations at the Children’s Organ Transplant Association, at COTA.org. 

COTA helps with fund-raising assistance for transplant patients in need.