Lana Fe Tavitas

Lana Fe Tavitas (2 months and 3 days) was born on June 28, 2025 at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.  Born with a pre-diagnosis of Hypo-Plastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS), she was expected to need her first of three open-heart surgeries within the first two weeks of her life.  Lana surprised everyone and successfully survived for two months and three days without requiring open-heart surgery.  She was diagnosed shortly after her birth with Alagille Syndrome and is the second recorded case in history to have the two together.  Lana went to heaven on August 31, 2025 after bravely conquering two heart catheterization surgeries, two heart attacks and five days on an ECMO heart and lung machine.  Lana overcame all of these obstacles to stay with us for as long as she knew that we needed her here.  

Lana’s name was suggested to her father by her mother as second on a list of more than thirty well-considered names and chosen by her father as being the same as a character in a favorite television series, Smallville, as Superman’s adored love and closest friend.  Lana’s middle name, Fe, was also suggested by her mother to her father and means “faith” in Spanish.  Lana’s sign name is significant in that it relates to both her father’s and her brother’s sign names which also both include their first and middle initials.  Lana’s sign name, given by her father, is the signed letter L and letter F facing inward over your heart.        

From her day of birth, Lana saw and heard our words in different languages: English, Spanish, American Sign Language, and Mexican Sign Language.  In her short time with us, Lana taught us so much about faith and hope and love that we never would have begun to know without her.  She also made us laugh every single day and filled our world with light and incredible happiness.  She will be remembered with joy for her smiles and with laughter for her severe eyebrow furrowing, skeptical looks, and for sticking her tongue out at all of us repeatedly whenever we tried to have serious conversations with her.

Lana was surrounded in love from her parents: Oscar Tadeo Tavitas Rodriguez of Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico and Jennifer Michelle Tavitas of Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; both sets of grandparents: Oscar Tavitas Herrera and Maria Elena Rodriguez Ramirez, and James and Barbara Williams; three aunts in Monterrey, N.L., Mexico: Denisse Tavitas Rodriguez (Lana’s godmother), Isis Tavitas Rodriguez (Marco Jimenez), and Melissa Tavitas Rodriguez (Luis Pontón); two aunts in the United States: Elizabeth Williams (Rick Cantu, Lana’s godfather), Atlanta, GA and Ashley Michaeli (Daniel), Wilmette, IL; seven cousins: Annie, Zared, Adrian, Leonardo, Samuel, Abigail and Caleb; her beloved older brother Oscar Mateo Tavitas Esquivel in Mexico City, Mexico; and her great-grandmother Tila Herrera aged 97; as well as countless relatives and friends who prayed for her, loved her, and instantly became her family.  Lana was greeted in heaven by her cousin Emiliano Sanchez Tavitas and her great-aunt Jean Guthrie.

Lana’s parents met at the Indiana School for the Deaf in an American Sign Language class and were married in Indianapolis on October 14, 2023.  Lana is, and always will be, their biggest joy and greatest blessing.      

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