Cesia's Story

When you’re asked if you can help, human nature usually finds a way.  That’s exactly what happened to Steve Meek of Franklin, Tennessee.  

Meek was on a church mission trip in Siguatepeque, Honduras in February of 2015.  He, and the group of men he travels with, build homes for the people of this impoverished area.   On the last day as the men were departing the country, Meek asked if there was anything else they could do.  One man from the crowd spoke up and told Meek his friend’s daughter has a hole in her heart and she was going to die.   At first, Meek didn’t know what to say.  He wasn’t a physician, however, he did know a really good one back home.   When he returned back home, he called his good friend Dr. John Bright Cage, a cardiologist at Saint Thomas Health in Nashville, Tennessee.   Meek told Cage the story and asked if there was anything he or the hospital could do.   Without hesitation, Cage told Meek to bring her up to Saint Thomas Health.   The Saint Thomas Health Foundation paid for this woman, Cesia Toledo, to fly from Honduras to Nashville. 

Dr. Mark Stankewicz, a cardiologist at Saint Thomas Heart, performed a new procedure to fix the hole in Cesia’s heart.  Within an hour, Dr. Stankewicz and his team performed the procedure and Cesia felt like a new woman.  For two weeks, Cesia and her mother stayed with Steve and Jan Meek in their Franklin home.  

This story has a happy ending as one man, a medical team, and the hospital’s Foundation saved this young woman’s life.   It’s a story of hope and love all while providing help to those in need no matter where they live.


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