Michael Sondergard San Diego couple's agonizing search for solution to daughter's incomplete esophagus ends happily at Children's Hospital of Iowa. Gabriela Stechel began her life's journey in a swirl of medical complications. Both she and her twin sister, Samantha, were born three months prematurely. Her rare condition caused months of worry for her parents, Michael and Enid Stechel of Encinitas, California. We learned she had a very unusual condition with no easy solutions.
Esophageal atresia exhibits itself in different forms.
In the most common type, the esophagus, while incomplete, is long enough that surgical repairs are relatively simple. In Gabriela's case, both segments of her esophagus ended in blind pouches. Her esophageal gap was too great for conventional repairs. She was hospitalized for the first six months of her life to give her time to grow and develop. M.D. Collins determined that Gabriela was an ideal candidate for a special esophageal elongation procedure developed by Ken Kimura, M.D., a pediatric surgeon at Children's Hospital of Iowa.