Los Angeles holds adoption ceremonies for more than 130 children a year, but none is more important to the City of Angels than the one set to take place Wednesday.
They are known as the “Domingo Clemente Miracle,” in honor of the 9-year-old Los Angeles boy who was pronounced dead at birth in late February, but whose heart and lungs were placed by his mother, Nydia Coronado, and his uncle on the back seat of a car to be delivered to the home of a friend in Tijuana, Mexico.
According to reports, the doctor who performed the miracle—who is said to have done so almost immediately after Nydia’s initial prenatal care ended—did not perform a C-section (meaning no surgery to open her uterus) as first feared. The story has earned such traction, it’s been featured on the front page of the Los Angeles Times as well as on NBC News, ABC, and CBS.
“We have given Nydia’s story the kind of mainstream media coverage it has not had before, and we believe that she is a remarkable person capable of inspiring others,” Nydia’s mother told NBC News in an exclusive phone interview.
A year ago, the story received just as much attention, but that didn’t really spur much of an actual reaction for the child whose life she had saved. That changed in April when an attorney with the office of Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) visited the home of Coronado and her family in Tijuana.
“Rep. Hunter was so moved, he invited us to come to Washington, D.C., and make the same trip,” said Nydia’s mother. “When he learned we had made the trip, he wanted me to share his story on how he had been inspired by the story of Domingo’s mother.” So he did.
It all started with an April Fools’ Day prank,
