International Children's Heart Foundation

Where Hope Comes to Life

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November 15, 2013

Meet Saad, Once a Refugee from War, Now a Babyheart Patient

Babyheart guest blogger & photographer, Kevin, lending a hand!

Saad is a 10 year old boy who was born with a hole in his heart that permits his deoxygenated and oxygenated blood to mix, placing immense strain on his heart and preventing his body from receiving much needed oxygen. Babyheart guest blogger and photographer, Kevin Whitcomb, (who is also medically-trained) had the opportunity to meet Saad during our mission to Benghazi, Libya. Here, he recounts his moments with this remarkable child who has overcome so many odds, as he fights for his life due to his heart defect and escape a brutal civil war in Syria.

 

You’d never guess by looking at him and his ever-present smile, but Saad has had tragedy piled on tragedy in his young life.

Even though he received surgery in Libya, he’s actually a recent refugee from war-torn Syria. He and his family came to Benghazi a little over 6 months ago and have been trying to make a life in a place that’s better than what they left.

Saad listening to his own heart the morning of his operation.

On the plus side, Saad was able to get the hole in his heart fixed by our Babyheart team in Benghazi.

On October 30th, the morning of his procedure, Saad was looked over by Babyheart ICU nurse, Libby and local Libyan nurse, Saddam. He wanted to hear his own heart so Saddam hooked him up and then Libby let him take a listen. This was actually good practice for Saad because he wants to be a doctor when he grows up!

Saad's operation to close his ventricular septal defect.

Still smiling, Saad was brought into the theater and prepped for surgery. Babyheart scrub nurse, Vicha helped entertain Saad while Babyheart anesthesiologist, Suzana prepared him for surgery.

Saad’s operation was a success. The hole in his heart was patched up and he left the operating room to recover in the ICU. Within hours of his operation, Saad was awake, smiling and playing a game with Babyheart ICU nurse, Libby!

Saad with a huge smile post operation!

Unfortunately, like so many children in the world, his repair came too late to avoid damaging his heart and now he’ll have to have another operation in the future.  The sad truth is that if there was a pediatric cardiac surgical program in Syria years ago, Saad could have had his heart fixed and avoided the additional damage.

ICHF has held 5 missions in Benghazi, Libya and has held missions in 30 countries providing over 6,600 operations. Now, we have started a year long program in Libya to heal hearts and train the local staff in pediatric cardiac care! In a few years, when Saad’s ready for his next surgery, he will be operated on solely by the Libyan surgeons being trained now.

Before leaving the hospital, Saad had a few things he wanted to tell the world and the Babyheart team. To hear what Saad had to say, click on the following video link here.

If you ever wonder if your donations are going to a good cause, just look into Saad’s eyes and know you’re making a difference!

Kevin Whitcomb

Guest Blogger and Photographer

 

Filed Under: Libya, News, Syria Tagged With: News

December 6, 2012

To Own Your Victories is to Own Your Future

“When I was a girl, the oath we took said – in part – ‘May fire rain down on America’. I didn’t want to say it. I’d lived in America and had friends there. I was nine, so the teachers let it slide. They didn’t believe it either. Had I been in high school I would have been punished.” Madia, an anesthesiologist resident told me. She continued to talk about the revolution, her eyes coming alive, “It was the best time of our lives! There was such solidarity. We all came together.”

Now the US – along with France, Turkey, Qatar, and the UK – are considered friends of the revolution. The flags of the countries can be seen in the graffiti that covers nearly every vertical surface in the city. A careful student of 21st century American foreign policy might note that this in not always the case with the nations we try the ‘help’.

A hated tyrant was ousted, without invasion or intrusive nation building, and a loose group of put-upon citizens were able to take their country back. Libyans are grateful for the help, as well as, in the end, being allowed to drive their own revolution. And why not? People and societies must own their victories, or they aren’t really victories.

To that end, taking care of your own children is written into the operational model of the ICHF.  Certainly the care for the children is a part of the mission, but the true endgame is creating a sustainable model for a pediatric cardiac unit that works: Writing protocols and technical training to international standards as well as working within the cultural framework of the host country. It is crucial distinction that separates the ICHF mission from the medical safaris. They no doubt to good work and save lives, but when they head back to their comfortable lives, no much more gets done. When ICHF volunteers head back to their comfortable lives, they know that they have left not only a mark, but that mark is part of building a sustainable solution.

The importance of this cannot be overstated – people must own their victories to get anything out of them: the systems must make sense the to the doctors and nurses and all the others who use them. They must take pride in it for it to work. Without pride and a sense of ownership of the many volunteers and supporters of the International Children’s Heart Foundation, it wouldn’t work either.

Richard Murff

Benghazi, Libya

Filed Under: congenital heart disease, ICHF, Libya, Medical Mission Report, News Tagged With: News

December 4, 2012

And We’re Walking…

Colette and Almotasim are walking

Almotasim’s cousin told us that the patient was an active boy. Colette, the Canadian ICU nurse, assured him that the 12 year old was about to be a lot more active.

At about eight thirty the previous evening, Almotasim had come up to the ICU from surgery with the usual array of kit and tubing snaking out of his chest and throat and was extubated in short order by the night shift. This was followed by a thankfully uneventful night.

A crucial part of the training the ICHF provides its hosts goes beyond immediate issues like, Exactly how does one repair an ASD? And Just what does extubate mean and how or why is it done? Other, less obvious details – like how to manage patient lists to keep the required number of beds in the ICU open – are also important, even crucial. To perform four complex surgeries that will likely require long post-op stays in the ICU, will create a bottleneck with the limited beds available for the next day’s patients. These are the sorts of management details that can often make the difference in a successful program.

Nine days into the Benghazi mission, after a few surprises and a one-day break from surgery, the ICU was very full. So it was with great relief, both to the ICHF staff and, presumably to Almotasim, that he was ready to leave for the pediatric ward after 20 hours. Which is the goal for ICHF pioneered Fast-Track Recovery program. It is a hard and fast rule of Fast Track that no patient who could walk into the hospital leaves the ICU under anything but his own steam. If a child needs to be carried out, he isn’t ready.

The boy was still dazed from his ordeal, granted, but he got out of bed and wasn’t particularly interested in getting back in. He and Colette took a walk down the long hallway and back, at which point he picked up that he was being transferred out of the ICU. Which in and of itself was welcome news, but he grew concerned about the modest amount of swag he’d accumulated. Could he take it with him?

The ICHF nurses traditionally pack small treats for the children: coloring books, blow-ticklers, small toys for their charges. Lindy, a South African born perfusionist working in Holland, brought a bag of stuffed animals with her. Almotasim had grown attached to his lion, and who can blame him? Once he’d cleared up the matter of taking his animal up to the ward, and facing the prospect of getting back into bed, the boy opted for another walk. Then he said goodbye to the other 12 year old in the ICU, with whom he’d made friends.

He went up about mid afternoon, where his cousin walked with us up to the pediatric ward – decorated with Disney characters and other American cartoons – where his parents and little brother were waiting. Almotasim was pleased to be getting out of the ICU, and a little less pleased to be getting plopped into another bed – but if it had to happen, at least he was going to have a decent roommate. He asked about getting his friend sent up to the neighboring bed. Colette said she talk to someone about it.

So what does the future hold for our friend Almotasim? He’s an active kid with a strong heart; he’s loyal to his friends – even the stuffed ones – and has the good sense stay in bed even when he doesn’t feel like it. He seems to ask for what he wants in life, and is a hair stubborn about it. Well, apart from aggravating his parents for the next few years, he’s going to be just fine.

Richard Murff

Benghazi, Libya

 

Filed Under: Babyheart, congenital heart disease, ICHF, Libya, News Tagged With: News

November 29, 2012

A Sensible Sort of Hope

Mohammed, seen here giving the thumbs up.

It is always interesting to reckon what a child is thinking, but when the child has been born into a world utterly incomprehensible to the American child, the exercise gets really interesting.

As he is being transferred from the bed to the operating table, Mohammed is looking stoic and brave and very much a child who wants to make his father proud. I can only imagine that he does. But Mohammed, at eight years old, lived through a brutal civil war at about the same age that I was contemplating a career as Spiderman.

Libya is a country where hope is still so fragile that isn’t really given to flights of fancy. The parents know it, and as is always the case, the children know it too even if they can’t say why. But there is hope: the war is over now. For Mohammed, however, a danger lurks that is not from above but from inside. The boy has a hole in his heart.

His hopes, and those of his parents, are pinned on an Iranian-born Swiss surgeon, Dr. Ali Dodge-Khatami. He is performing the ASD closure in an operating theater that is better equipped than I was expecting. The issue in Benghazi is not one of equipment but of education and training, and that is why the ICHF has come. The Libyans know this and have sent staff from Tripoli to take part in the training.

In situations like these, there is always a mild dose of culture shock: in the scrub room the Libyan anesthesiologist kneels on a small rug, making his 5:00 prayers. The bypass machine to be used for the procedure is maneuvered quietly around him and into the theater. Mohammed’s chart has his nutritional status listed as “Normal” but from across the room nearly every rib in his chest can be counted. And he is. An American who could once believe that he’d have spidey-senses can afford to get fat, but this is a different world.

What he thought, as he woke in the long quiet of the night shift, was “Is the surgery over yet?” Those were the first words he uttered to his mother and veteran ICHF volunteer Andrea Hiebert. It was over, and it was a success. He’d be sore, but was well. He went back to sleep.

What then, did the boy think when he awoke to the handover from night shift to day, drifting out of a groggy sleep to find a dozen doctors and nurses from around looking, smiling and chatting away in a incomprehensible babble? Were they discussing him? They are friendly faces, ones that – so his mother says – are telling him that he is well now, he will live and play soccer and, if the mood hits, can consider a career as a superhero as long as he has a sensible backup plan.

I took his picture, and with now prompting gave me a thumbs up. I think we understood each other. He walked out of the ICU a few hours later on his own. He has hope and a realistic one at that.

Richard Murff

Benghazi, Libya

Filed Under: congenital heart disease, Libya, News, Tripoli Tagged With: News

November 27, 2012

Babyheart Hits the Ground Running in Benghazi

Victoryia and May sorting things out.

Performing better than twenty heart surgeries in two weeks, producing rich world outcomes under emerging world conditions, the ICHF has never been an organization to waste a lot of time. This was vividly illustrated on November 26th, day one of the foundation’s second trip to Benghazi, Libya.

Dr. Kathleen Fenton, who has overseen Operation Babyheart in Managua, Nicaragua for the last five years, and Dr. Cameron Greydon of Australia both arrived in Benghazi a day ahead of the mission to assess patients. The rest of the mission was greeted with an ambitious schedule the first day: three procedures in two theaters, with herself and ICHF volunteer surgeon Dr. Ali Dodge Khatami from Switzerland to perform the two VSDs and a PDA.

Most of the team arrived in Benghazi at 8:30 am on Monday morning, but didn’t leave the airport when the donated medical supplies we were carrying were inexplicably impounded. This was as problematic as it sounds. Sorting through the donated supplies needs to be done before the first patient arrives in the PICU. After a lot of bad noise at the airport, the team arrived at the Benghazi Medical Center at two in the afternoon, roughly the same time the first patient, Asmaa, was coming out of the operating theater.

Janine Evans, the team coordinator for the Libya mission, called the charge and the nurses scrambled to change into their scrubs to care for little Asmaa – as well as sort the supplies and set up a modern ICU. The impounded bags arrived at the hospital about an hour later.

These sort of minor fiascos are simply part of the experience on a babyheart mission: pulling order out of chaos is what they do. Asmaa, thankfully, is a brave patient who appears to be able to face anything as long as her hair is in proper pigtails. A lady needs her hairdo, and who can blame her?

With two operating theaters going, at the end of the day shift two more patients arrived in a neatly ordered PICU. So day one ended the way a lot of babyheart missions do: from a morass of strange problems being hammer out in a foreign language to – somehow – a safe and ordered haven for recovering children.

Filed Under: Babyheart, congenital heart disease, ICHF, Libya, News Tagged With: 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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