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"People are dying from basic, basic conditions, and that's because they have no place to go,” said Jean Elade Eloi of the Hope for Haiti Foundation.

Those who live outside the country's capital city of Port-au-Prince rely on rural clinics and humanitarian aid.

"She was brought to me because of shortness of breath," said Dr. Gerry Gacioch. He first met 20-year-old Denise Imbry three years ago.

"I examined her and heard a classic murmur," said Gacioch.

A bout with an inflammatory disease left her heart permanently damaged.

"Her mitral valve, because of the rheumatic fever doesn't open normally so it's an impediment to the blood going to her heart," said Gacioch.

A follow-up examination revealed things had gotten worse.

"The way her symptoms have progressed over the past year… (she) should have a couple of years of life left,” said Gacioch.

Through Intervol, a Rochester-based non-profit group, and the Hope for Haiti Foundation, Denise was able to secure a medical visa. She was flown to the U.S. and taken to Rochester General Hospital, a nationally recognized heart center.

"We have an operation that we know how to do that will correct that and it should put her back on track to becoming a normal healthy adult, live a normal healthy life and just enjoy herself,” said Dr. Ron Kirshner.

Kirshner will perform the operation Thursday morning. After two weeks of recovery, Denise will be able to return home.

"This story for us this big news because it doesn't happen every day," said Eloi.

It's an opportunity some hope others like Denise will have in their home country some day.

"We are generations from that," said Eloi.