International Children's Heart Foundation

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Archives for May 2015

May 21, 2015

Trip recap: Guayaquil, Ecuador and Georgetown, Guyana

In its most recent medical mission trip of 2015, our team traveled to Ecuador and Guyana to aid children in need and even made history.

Guayaquil, Ecuador

Throughout the duration of our one-week stay in Ecuador, our team of volunteers came from a wide range of countries, including Canada, Chile, Belgium, France, Portugal and the U.S. Under the leadership of volunteer surgeon Dr. Caputo, we were able to operate on 11 brave children ranging in age from 4 months to 15 years old.

Guayaquil2015dThis mission marked our 22nd trip to Ecuador, with a total of 442 operations. Along with operations, we continued our mission of providing education to the local staff. Each team member provided hands on teaching, and the ICU nurses received a lecture on Newborn Care in the Cardiac ICU.

“As after every trip, I am going back home thinking how amazing it is to put together random people and build a team, work together and get the best of everyone in order to help children! As always, I loved it,” said volunteer Dr. Ana Diaz of SICK Kids Hospital in Toronto, Canada.

Georgetown, Guyana

For two weeks, Dr. Soto led our incredible team of 18 volunteers from the U.S., Canada, Chile, Norway and the United Kingdom, including a doctor that completed his medical schooling in Georgetown, Guyana and went on to complete his residency in the same hospital that the ICHF team worked from. He now resides and works in the United Kingdom, and he was thrilled for the opportunity to participate and give back in such a powerful and exciting way that will help the children in his home country for years to come!

On Tuesday, April 28, the first ever open
heart surgery to correct a congenital heart defect was performed in Guyana when 21-year-old Naticia Ramcharan’s Atrial Septal Defect was repaired. Naticia did great and was discharged from the hospital on Friday of the same week. Throughout our inaugural stay in Georgetown, we performed 13 surgeries and 6 cardiac catheterizations.

Great strides were made on this successful mission trip. One volunteer noted: “We started an ICU from nothing, with the infrastructure given to us by Roy, which was then combined with the hard work of the local staff and volunteers. That is remarkable! When surgeries were cancelled because of water coming through the pipes on Monday, we trembled…but no one gave up! Through creativity, ingenuity, hard work, ethics and commitment, we pulled through it and the operating room became operational. We opened the cardiac cath lab on holidays; we got stuck in dark elevators; we had no X-ray for 10 hours; labs did not come back in relevant times…but we did it!”

In addition to our incredible volunteers, this life-changing trip would not have been possible without the help of our wonderful supporters. If you feel inspired to support ICHF, we encourage you to check out the upcoming medical volunteer and non-medical volunteer opportunities that ICHF has to offer, as well as ways you can donate to make more surgeries like these possible.

We plan to visit Ecuador three more times this year – the next trip will take place from June 20 to July 4. We will also visit Guyana two more times this year, starting with our trip to Georgetown from July 4 to 18. Stay tuned for more trip updates!

Guayaquil patient having fun!
Guayaquil
Another Guayaquil patient enjoying the coloring book
The Guyana Team
Resting peacefully
The first two patients in Guyana head home
Guyana patients and their families
More of the Guyana team!
Guyana patient – all smiles in all pink
Guyana patients loving their puppies
Dr. Zaf

Filed Under: News

May 15, 2015

Amy’s Story

Amy is a 5–year-old girl that was born with a severe form of a congenital heart disease called Tetralogy of Fallot.

When she was a baby, the ICHF team performed urgent surgery on her (inserted a Blalock–Taussig shunt) in order to provide oxygen to her lungs until she could grow and have a curative surgery. Five years later, she was still waiting for a definite surgery that would allow her to have a normal life. She always told her mom that she would like to have a party after her surgery, because that would mean that she was cured.

Amy was taking aspirin to prevent her blood from clotting, which was necessary after her first heart surgery. After a diagnostic heart catheterization, her family was told to stop her medication for the test, but they never restarted it again. Amy was scheduled to have surgery on this ICHF trip, but due to cavities, she could not be operated and was sent home to see a dentist.

On May 4, Amy became very unwell, and she was brought to the emergency department in Guayaquil. She was blue due to extremely low oxygen saturations of 30 percent in her blood. An echo showed that she had a clot in her BT shunt, and without urgent surgery, she would die. Luckily for her, some of the ICHF team was still in Guayaquil helping provide resources to the local surgical team. The ICU team took care of Amy on arrival, and Dr. Montero performed a successful complete repair of her Tetralogy of Fallot the day after. Now, she is ready for discharge, and she will have a party as soon as she arrives home. She is our miracle girl from Ecuador.

Spanish Translation:

Amy tiene 5 años, nació con una forma muy severa de cardiopatía llamada Tetralogía de Fallot. Fue operada urgentemente cuando era un bebe, (fistula de Blalock Taussig) para suministrar oxígeno a sus pulmones, ya que su situación era muy critica. De esa forma, podría crecer y esperar para su siguiente cirugía que sería curativa. 5 años más tarde, Amy estaba aun esperando por esa cirugía que no llegaba y que le permitiría tener una vida normal como el resto de los niños. Amy siempre le decía a su madre que si un día le operaban le gustaría tener una fiesta, por que eso significaría que estaba curada.

Por su enfermedad, Amy tenía que tomar aspirina, para evitar la formación de coágulos en su sangre. La medicación fue parada para un cateterismo que ella necesitaba y nunca fue retomada otra vez. Amy estaba programada para tener su cirugía en la misión de Abril de ICHF pero debido a sus caries, no pudo ser operada y fue enviada a casa a ir al dentista.

El 4 de Mayo Amy se desmayó en casa, sus padres la llevaron a urgencias donde se vió que tenia saturaciones de oxigeno muy bajas (30%) debido a un coagulo en su previa cirugía y sin una operación urgente Amy moriría pronto. Por suerte, parte del equipo de ICHF todavía estaba en Guayaquil realizando cirugía cardiaca en niños sin recursos. Amy fue ingresada en la unidad de cuidados intensivos donde se le estabilizó y tuvo su cirugía el día siguiente. Dr. Montero le hizo una reparación completa de su Tetralogía de Fallot. Ahora, totalmente recuperada esta lista para irse de alta y tener esa fiesta que tanto había deseado. Nosotros la llamamos la niña milagro de ecuador.

Filed Under: Patient Stories

May 4, 2015

iNews Guyana: Six children successfully complete heart surgeries at GPHC

iNews Guyana reported on our current trip in the country, where the Babyheart team has performed six surgeries and have more planned for this week. To learn more about ICHF’s inaugural trip to Guyana, read the full article here. We are already looking forward to returning in July!

Filed Under: News

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Mission Statement

The mission of the International Children’s Heart Foundation (ICHF) is to bring the skills, technology and knowledge to cure and care for children with congenital heart disease in developing nations.  ICHF does this regardless of country of origin, race, religion or gender. Our goal is to make the need for ICHF obsolete. We work toward this goal through our medical mission trips, where we operate on children and educate local healthcare professionals.

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