Meet Dr. Berracol

She is one of the most renowned retina specialists in the world. In December 2018, we showed up at her office desperate to get an appointment with her. Two other doctors had told us Kinsley didn’t have a tumor but just a detached retina. We knew Dr. B was the best so we literally just showed up at her doorstep in Miami. It was six days before Christmas, it was 5 pm at night. She could have put us off. But she didn’t. She took Kinsley into the operating room simply to see if she could fix Kinsley’s retina. She had no idea she was going to find cancer. She had no idea she was going to have to break that horrific news to us at 7 pm in a completely empty waiting room less than a week before Christmas.

The last time we saw her she was telling me that my child had cancer. She then connected us with the top ocular oncologist and hugged us tight and we went on our way. December 2018. That was the last time we saw her...... until today. We happened to be at the same hospital but on a different floor for a prosthetic eye appointment and heard she was available. My stomach dropped. Would I be able to say the right thing? Would I be able to thank her properly? How do you thank someone for ultimately putting into motion the series of events that saved your child’s life?

She walked in within 1 min of hearing we were there to say hi. No words were necessary. She embraced us with the warmest hug and told us she thought about us often. She looked at Kinsley with the compassionate eyes of a caring mother.

I will forever be grateful for this woman who stayed late and added Kinsley to her already long schedule and then graciously broke the news that forever changed our lives.