Featured CDH International New Jersey Ambassador is Dania Diaz. Dania is the mom to CDH survivor Luna.
Dania is the very proud mother of Luna, a RCDH survivor. She has lived in northern New Jersey almost her entire life. Dania is a bilingual (Spanish) school psychologist. She is very passionate about serving the school-aged special education population, particularly in urban settings. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Caldwell University and a Master’s Degree in School Psychology and an Educational Specialist degree from Seton Hall University. In her free time, she enjoys spending time running, cooking, traveling, and watching movies with her family.
Her world was turned completely upside down when Luna was diagnosed with a severe right-sided CDH at 20 weeks gestation in December 2011. After receiving very poor prognoses from several local hospitals, her husband and her refused to give up and turned to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. They consulted with the team there and were so very happy to receive a more positive prognosis. Luna was born at CHOP and had her CDH repair at 4 days old. Luna did great. After 11 days on a ventilator, she was extubated. Luna continued to do well and was discharged after spending 5 weeks in the NICU. She is now a very happy and healthy child.
