Darth Vader, Stormtroopers, and hospital staff crowded the walls in a victory walk for 13-year-old Star Wars superfan Carlos Garcia, a Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital patient.
Garcia was transferred out of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit after receiving a month of lifesaving intensive care treatments for lupus and sepsis.
With the support of his family and comprehensive care team, Garcia wore a smile through treatment and exemplified deep compassion for others. His care team recognized his love for Star Wars and wanted to congratulate him on coming off intensive treatments by organizing a victory walk accompanied by characters from the franchise, who gifted him and his siblings their own lightsabers.
“We supported him, but he worked hard and chose to fight. The grand gesture shows how proud his nurses and doctors are and that his battle wasn’t easy,” Carlos Garcia Sr. said.
The Palmdale resident's lungs and kidneys began failing and needed the support of ECMO, a procedure that uses a machine to replace the work of the lungs and heart, and CRRT, a non-stop 24-hour dialysis therapy.
After 10 days of treatment, Garcia grew strong and his body recovered enough to be transferred out of the PICU into the step-down ICU with hopes of being discharged from the hospital soon.