A 16-year-old Cuban girl, who watched her father, her stepfather and her cousins all die right in front of her trying to make it to America, is a pursuit of freedom.

The young Cuban refugee, Laura Frigola, is recuperating at Oschner Hospital in Jefferson after a harrowing journey.  The nurses watching over her are reaching out to others, begging for help after they have given all they can afford to give.

Laura’s skin is still burned from the sun, and the high sodium levels in her blood caused her brain to swell.  Her story caused her nurses to fall in love.

“We knew it was special,” Kristy Kapesis, a nurse who is treating Laura, said. She wasn’t just another sick patient.”

Like hundreds of thousands of Cuban refugees who have tried to sail or float towards an American future. 

On April 15, Laura, her mother, Mirtha Gonzalez and 12 others escaped on a motor boat.  The plan was to leave Pinar Del Rio Cuba and enter Cancun, Mexico, where laws would grant them asylum.  Instead, on the second day, their motor broke. After 10 days of drifting in the Gulf of Mexico, a Venezuelan tanker rescued them 300 miles south of New Orleans.

Gonzalez said it was the most terrible experience of her life, and that she will never forget it.  Not even with therapy, she believes her daughter is experiencing trauma, after watching her father die and having to throw his body overboard.

They also watched two other men jump into the water in a desperate search for drinking water.  Laura’s mother held her hand and her stepfather’s hand as they teetered on the edge of death, until U.S. Air Force helicopters transported them to Oschner.

Still, Gonzalez has no regrets, saying that the oppression in Cuba remains the same after Fidel Castro’s brother, Raul, took over Cuba.  She said new cellphones and computers for sale can only be purchased with American dollars – not Cuban pesos; it costs 25 pesos to buy one American dollar.

Gonzalez asked if things were so good in Cuba, why would she risk the journey with her family, and have Laura in this condition?              

“They're just trying to make a better life for themselves, and that's what America's about,” Kapesis said. And if there's a little piece that I can use to help them."

The Oschner unit that is treating Laura used all of the special charity funds to support them until Mirtha can work, but now they are asking for the public’s help.

Mirtha is moved to tears when she thinks of their kindness.

The local chapter of the Cuban American Foundation has opened a fund to help Laura. You can go to any Capitol One Bank branch and donate to Laura's Fund, if you want to help.