International Children's Heart Foundation

Where Hope Comes to Life

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Archives for September 2016

September 28, 2016

Volunteer Spotlight: Tony Ruiz

Not all of the volunteers on our missions have a medical background.

Meet Tony Ruiz, an advertising and marketing professional with a knack for photography. He joined us on our mission to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic earlier this month to help document the trip with pictures and stories.  Tony is no stranger to volunteering. He volunteers his photography skills on a regular basis with GrowNYC and even helps coordinate the annual Volunteer Day at the company where he works.

Having undergone a cardiac procedure to treat a Congenital Heart Defect as a child, he remembers that there were a lot of things he couldn’t do as a kid that his friends could do.  Photo Aug 30, 5 13 15 PMWhen the opportunity came for him to help out ICHF, he was thrilled. He loved having the opportunity to contribute to an organization that helps kids be more “kid-like” and enjoy the things that kids should enjoy.

His time in Santo Domingo made him feel very purposeful –

like what he was doing mattered. Seeing the overflowing gratitude from the families of the patients, and how they truly could not put into words how thankful they were was touching to Tony. In his words, “wonderful work happens there.  It’s amazing to see the team come together from many different areas of the world, and when they get there, they quickly find their collaborative rhythm.”  Thanks, Tony, for truly capturing the experience in Santo Domingo.

Find out how you can use your own skills as a volunteer!   

Filed Under: Volunteer Stories

September 14, 2016

Wendy’s Story

“I saw into her future.  That’s why I’m finally doing something about it.”  Wendy’s mom had postponed her 5-year-old daughter’s cardiac surgery since her diagnosis at 2 months of age. Doctors told her to hold off on the surgery until she was 6 months old. She returned, and they said wait a year. Then again another year.  “All the delays, I thought, it can’t be so bad afterall. So I stopped going,” explained Wendy’s mom Fedline on August 30, 2016, just before her surgery at Robert Reid Cabral Hospital in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Wendy 2

During most of her stay on the cardiology floor, Wendy is rapt in a video game. Beside her lay a neglected doll, unsurprisingly named “muñeca,” Spanish for “doll.” Back home in Los Frailes Segundo, just outside of Santo Domingo, Wendy’s grandmother is feeling the effects of neglecting the cardiac condition they both share. “Seeing my mom’s health decline these days, that’s what convinced me to bring Wendy back for the first time in 4 years. I thought, I don’t want that for my daughter. So here I am.”Wendy 3

Wendy entered the operating room at 9:45AM on a Tuesday to have her transitional atrioventricular canal repaired. She was placed on bypass at 11:22AM for a total of 74 minutes and underwent a successful and uneventful procedure. Wendy made it to ICU by 2PM, and graduated to the cardiology floor less than 20 hours later. About ICHF donors, staff, volunteers, and local partners, Wendy’s mom said, “I can’t put into words how grateful I am for everything that they do.”Wendy 4

Filed Under: Patient Stories Tagged With: Dominican Republic

September 14, 2016

Rancel’s Story

Two-year-old Rancel  absolutely refuses to settle for one measly lap around the surgery floor corridors. There’s really no telling how long he’d wander if the matter weren’t up to the nurses trailing him. They cheerfully lugged his chest tube and infusion pump this way and that way for a whole two laps. Frankly, no one can keep up with the little rascal anymore.

But that vitality wasn’t always a reality for Rancel. In fact, his life was quite the opposite. “He’s always tired,” his mom María explains the day before surgery. The young boy’s heart condition was discovered earlier this year. And although it was no surprise to mom, whose older daughter underwent the same procedure Rancel soon would, her concern is palpable in the hours leading up to his operation.Rancel 3

María speaks carefully, guarded, her mind absorbed in something distant and worrying. And it seems at first like Rancel is mirroring mom’s mood, although her countless glances at him make it hard to be sure who is emulating who. After parting for a brief 4 hours, when Rancel had his partial atrioventricular canal successfully repaired by an expert team of ICHF volunteers and local staff, he was delivered to the ICU at 8:20PM on August 30th, 2016.Rancel 4

He’s apparently eager to catch up on lost time. Rancel hopped out bed at the first opportunity, less than 17 hours after leaving surgery. His mom is grateful and hopeful. “I’ve only met wonderful medical professionals here, and I have no doubt that Rancel will have a long and energetic life.”

Rancel 5

Filed Under: Patient Stories Tagged With: Dominican Republic

September 14, 2016

Mileisy’s Story

The ICU is momentarily effervescent. Two-year-old Mileisy blows bubbles with adorable concentration. Tender smiles punctuate her strenuous exhales whenever she manages to launch a few bubbles into the air. Meanwhile, the two patients before her have graduated from bubbles to whistles and party horns. All are instruments of “play therapy,” toys that encourage patients to take deep breaths, a crucial part of recovery, but a painful thing to do after open heart surgery.

Mileisy 2

The last few days have been painful for some of the parents, too – certainly for Mileisy’s mom, Anairis. “I cried and cried while she was in there,” she admits about the six hours her daughter spent in the operating room, where surgeons successfully augmented her pulmonary artery. But Mom is collected now, on alert, her expression firm. “She’s a wild one. I have to really protect her from now on, more than I did before,” she says. It seems odd, because Mileisy is healthier now, stronger, so why protect her more? “I think that during her surgery – and heart surgery is no small thing – it was the closest I’d ever felt to losing her.”Mileisy 3

A few hours later on the cardiology floor, Anairis makes it a point to express her many thanks to everyone who made her daughter’s medical care possible. Meanwhile, Mileisy is coloring, play therapy that encourages her to sit up. Despite herself, every time she glances at her daughter grinning into a coloring book, Anairis’ face discloses moments of genuine, if brief, delight and relief. Perhaps play therapy is as emotionally restorative as it is physically, and a bit contagious, too.Mileisy 4

Filed Under: Patient Stories Tagged With: Dominican Republic

Free Child Heart Surgeries

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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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