Power In Positivity

Claudia Casas teaches empathy, empowerment

By Erin Ratigan
Photos by Sarah Langer

In 1975, Esmeralda Kruse knew something was wrong. She was going into labor a month and a half early, and she’d had abnormal bleeding the month before. She underwent an emergency cesarean section, but her baby was born jaundiced and, at one point, had little oxygen reaching her brain. An hour after the delivery, her baby had a seizure and was moved into intensive care at another hospital. For three weeks, Esmeralda was separated from her baby, whom doctors said might not survive infancy. “The first time that the doctors placed Claudia in my arms, I felt such joy and a relief to know that she would now be in my care,” Esmeralda says.