By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER EAST SIDE — Dollys Peralta, 42, thought the worst days were over for her oldest daughter, who by age 15 had already undergone two heart transplants.
But on Saturday, Nohelly Munoz — who must take twice-daily medication cocktails to keep her from rejecting her new heart — left for a trip to Coney Island with friends and never came back.
Now, Peralta is begging the public for help finding her ill daughter.
"If anyone knows anything about where she might be, please help me," Peralta said from her apartment on East 93rd Street. "I'm desperate."
Munoz, who has a distinctive scar on her chest from her surgeries, was last seen at Coney Island around 8:30 p.m., police said.
"She'd never done something like this, this was the first time," Peralta said. "She was congested and I told her not to go because it was cloudy and it wasn't a good day to go to the beach."
The 15-year-old was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a condition where the heart muscle weakens and cannot pump blood, when she was a baby. After the diagnosis, Peralta shepherded her daughter through rounds of doctors visits, which eventually led to Munoz's first heart transplant when she was just 16 months old.
But Munoz's body rejected the heart and Munoz had to undergo another transplant as a 12-year-old in 2007.
Despite the constant health problems, Munoz became a typical teen who enjoyed listening to the Dominican group Aventura and hung pictures of R&B singer Chris Brown and a signed photo of Marisa Del Portillo, a Spanish-language TV star, above the bunk bed she shares with her younger sister, Jessica, 9.
About the only trouble Munoz ever gave her mother was talking too much on the phone, which didn't make Peralta angry so much as make her laugh.
Most of Munoz's family lives in the Dominican Republic, but Thursday longtime friends called and stopped by to support Peralta.
"I'm just waiting," Peralta said.
Anyone with information regarding Nohelly Munoz's disappearance is asked to contact 1-800-577-8477.
