Girl restoring brother's sight, 1 glass at a time

The treatment for her baby brother's blindness is in a Chinese hospital, thousands of miles from the roadside lemonade stand open for business every weekend.

Each glass of lemonade or tea that 8-year-old Brianna Bermudez sells is another dollar dropped in a bucket that she is determined to fill with $50,000. The Regions Bank account for the Bryce Sight Foundation so far totals less than $1,000. The money will pay for medical treatment not approved in the United States but available in Chinese hospitals in partnership with Beike Biotechnology.

"I just made it for him because he needed the operation," Brianna said. The lemonade stand was her idea. On Saturdays and Sundays she can be found in South Tampa at West Leila and Manhattan avenues with her grandmother, Debbie Semis, and aunt, Melissa Mastrototaro.

Adults weren't very good at keeping the news of her brother's blindness from her. "I was on the side of the bed when [my grandmother] was talking," Brianna said.

She has never met 8-month-old Bryce Mastrototaro. He lives on New York's Long Island with their mother, Michelle Mastrototaro, and three brothers. When Brianna's father, David Bermudez, was arrested more than two years ago and eventually deported to El Salvador, the family's life went from middle class stability into a tailspin of foreclosure and homelessness.

To help out, Brianna's grandmother, Debbie Semis, brought Brianna to Tampa to live with her and her husband. The couple operate a liquidation company selling laptops on the Internet.

Michelle Mastrototaro receives public assistance for her family and medical care for Bryce in New York.
The toddler was born legally blind because of an underdeveloped optic nerve that cannot send visual signals to his brain.

The condition, known as optic nerve hypoplasia, generally is considered incurable. However, in China stem cell research by Beike Biotechnology has led to experimental treatments with stem cells harvested from umbilical cord blood, not the more controversial procedure of removing stem cells from human fetuses.

Adult stem cells have been used for years by the medical community primarily in treatment of blood diseases.

The research pace set by the federal Food and Drug Administration is too slow for many families who want help now for a long list of debilitating and sometimes fatal diseases, such as cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease and Parkinson's disease. Increasingly they look to other countries willing to offer experimental treatments.

Actress Farrah Fawcett's documentary highlighting her medical trips to Germany for cancer treatments is a recent celebrity example of the trend.

An Internet search reveals supportive Web sites and articles about American children with improved vision following medical visits to Chinese hospitals. A Web site for Beike Biotechnology states the company has contracts with 27 hospitals worldwide where more than 250 patients receive treatments monthly.

Semis spends two hours or more a day trolling the Internet for the latest tidbit of hope, connecting with a network of families, including children in Port Charlotte and Lakeland, who share Bryce's affliction and a China link.

Semis posts information about the Bryce Sight Foundation to Web sites, including Zvents and Craigslist. She sends messages on Twitter.

"God opens avenues," Semis said. "I'm always researching because I know there's an answer."

At least three times a week Mastrototaro takes Bryce to vision, speech and physical therapy. He looks closer in age to a 5-month-old and he faces surgery shortly, "maybe to put a shunt in his head," his mother said.

Doctors told her he had a stroke while in the womb. The causes of Bryce's condition are not certain.

"He's not had a good road," his mother said, but, "he's a happy baby. He's a pleasure. He listens for you because he can't see you, and then you touch him and he gets so happy."

Semis keeps busy on the Internet hoping to make a trip to China to bring sight to her grandson.
The fundraising comes back to the old-fashioned lemonade stand, one dollar at a time. Yard sales, bake sales and maybe a special fundraising event might be next.

"We're still trudging on," Semis said.

Donations can be made at any Regions Bank, specifying the Bryce Sight Foundation.