minute high-pressure oxygen treatments in a hyperbaric chamber to increase oxygen flow to the skin. Hyperbaric chambers are used by scuba divers to treat decompression sickness, or "the bends." Milagros' condition forced her parents to leave their home in the Andean town of Huancayo and move to Lima, where they live largely on charity. She has been treated for free by a City Hall-funded hospital run out of old buses. Her father, Ricardo Cerron, 24, got some work as an electrician at the hospital, but the couple worry about making ends meet. Her mother, Sara Arauco, 19, dreams of "having something so she can be happy, a little house" for the two decades of grueling operations facing Milagros. Milagros will be baptized in Lima's cathedral on Feb. 21. Lima Mayor Luis Castaneda will be her godfather. --SP 2241 Local Time 1941 GMT
