International Children's Heart Foundation

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July 24, 2015

ICHF Añade Lima, Perú, al calendario de misiones para el 2015 en adelante

International Children’s Heart Foundation, una organización sin fines de lucro, con base en Memphis, dedicada a cuidar y a curar niños con cardiopatías congénitas alrededor del mundo, ha anunciado que sumará Lima, Perú, a la lista de misiones médicas, a partir de este año. El equipo viajara a Lima entre el 5 al 19 de Diciembre.

ICHF trabajará directamente con los profesionales de salud del Instituto Nacional de Salud del Niño para realizar cirugías, así como también proporcionar educación y recursos clínicos de primer nivel. A partir de 2016, ICHF hará tres viajes al año, enviando un equipo de profesionales cada tres o cuatro meses. Si bien es importante que ICHF es capaz de ayudar en cirugías para salvar vidas en estos viajes, el equipo se enfocará en el entrenamiento y educación de los profesionales del INSN, de manera que ellos puedan seguir trabajando con altos estándares después del término de cada misión.

Perú es un país de 30 millones de personas, con una tasa bruta de natalidad de 18,5 por ciento. Sobre la base de una prevalencia del 0,8 por ciento de las cardiopatías congénitas en el Perú, cada año aproximadamente 4.300 niños nacen con problemas al corazón. De ellos, 50 por ciento requerirá algún tipo de intervención quirúrgica para sobrevivir. INSN tiene un programa de cirugía cardiaca pediátrica establecido que realiza más de 100 casos al año. Sin embargo, el hospital quiere mejorar los resultados y la capacidad del personal para hacer frente a los casos más complejos de forma rutinaria. La Dr. Wieslawa de Pawlikowski del INSN contacto ICHF para explorar la posibilidad de una asistencia clínica y de equipamiento para lograr estos objetivos, ICHF gustoso esta respondiendo a esta solicitud.

“Agregar Lima a nuestra agenda 2015 – 2016, es un testimonio del interés del equipo de ICHF y de todos sus voluntarios de proveer asistencia a los niños portadores de cardiopatías congénitas, y a los profesionales que cuidan de estos pacientes en todo el mundo,” dijo el Dr. Rodrigo Soto, Director Ejecutivo de Operaciones Clínicas para ICHF. “Estamos encantados de que el INSN nos contactara, y estamos muy ansiosos por ayudar a desarrollar el programa cardioquirúrgico en dicho hospital.”

Más allá de viajar a estos países para llevar a cabo cirugías para salvar vidas y educar al personal, ICHF también proporciona los equipos necesarios para las instalaciones, así como la estructura organizativa de los servicios cardiopediátricos, es además una constante fuente de consulta por un período indefinido de tiempo. Para el viaje a Perú, el equipo de ICHF estará asegurando la donación de varias piezas de equipo médico a la unidad de cardiocirugía e intensivo cardiovascular del INSN, incluyendo una máquina corazón-pulmón, un intercambiador de calor, cuatro ventiladores pediátricos para la unidad de cuidados intensivos pediátricos y cuatro monitores con control de la presión invasiva para la unidad de intermedio cardiovascular. Todo este equipo está valorado en $ 69,300 USD.

ICHF tiene 22 años de historia de la prestación de servicios cardiopediátricos, la educación y el desarrollo de programas en más de 30 países de todo el mundo, habiendo operado a 7.548 niños durante este tiempo. El éxito de estos programas se ha traducido en cerca de 20 países que han desarrollado o están en vías de mejorar sus programas cardíoquirúrgicos.

Flag of Peru

International Children’s Heart Foundation Adds Lima, Peru, to Mission Calendar for 2015 and Beyond

The International Children’s Heart Foundation, a Memphis-based nonprofit dedicated to caring for and curing children with congenital heart disease in developing areas across the globe, has announced that it will add Lima, Peru, to the list of annual medical mission trips, starting this year with a team traveling there Dec. 5 to 19.

ICHF will work directly with health care professionals at Instituto Nacional de Salud del Nino to perform surgeries, as well as provide premier clinical education and resources. Beginning in 2016, ICHF will be making three trips per year, sending a team every three to four months. While it is important that ICHF is able to assist in life-saving surgeries on these trips, the team is ultimately focused on educating INSN personnel so that they can continue to save children’s lives after the ICHF team returns home.

Peru is a country of 30 million people with a crude birth rate of 18.5 percent. Based on a prevalence of 0.8 percent of congenital heart disease in Peru, each year approximately 4,300 children are born with CHD. Of those, 50 percent will require some kind of surgical intervention to survive. INSN has an established pediatric cardiac surgical program performing more than 100 cases a year. However, the hospital wants to improve outcomes and the capability of staff to address more complex cases on a routine basis. Dr. Wieslawa de Pawlikowski of INSN contacted ICHF to explore the possibility of collaboration to achieve these goals, and ICHF quickly obliged.

“Adding Lima, Peru, to our trip roster for 2015 and beyond is a testament to the value that our team and volunteers provide to patients and health care staff across the globe,” said Dr. Rodrigo Soto, CEO of clinical operations for ICHF. “We were thrilled that INSN sought out our partnership, and we are very eager to help develop the program and personnel there at the hospital.”

Beyond traveling to these countries to perform life-saving surgeries and to educate staff, ICHF also provides needed equipment to the facilities, as well as organizational structure for the pediatric cardiac services and a constant source of consultation for an indefinite amount of time. For the trip to Peru, the ICHF team will be securing the donation of several pieces of medical equipment to the pediatric cardiology unit at INSN, including a heart lung bypass machine, a heater cooler, four pediatric ventilators for the pediatric intensive care unit and four monitors with invasive pressure monitoring for the step-down unit. All of this equipment is valued at $69,300 USD.

ICHF has a 22-year history of providing pediatric cardiac services, education and program development in more than 30 countries around the world, operating on 7,548 children during this time. The success of these programs has resulted in nearly 20 countries either developing or improving their pediatric cardiac programs.

Filed Under: News, Uncategorized Tagged With: Peru

April 15, 2014

7,000 Children 7,000 Hearts

One patient leads to another
Over 24 years ago there was a 12-year-old Nigerian girl who was in desperate need of surgery to correct her congenital heart defect in order to save her life. Unfortunately, she had lived with her defect for too long and her condition was too far gone. Dr. William Novick, as a resident in cardiac surgery at the University of Alabama, learned that if she had received treatment sooner, she could have had the corrective surgery she needed to save her life. Dr. Novick’s mentor, Dr. Albert Pacifico, performed her operation, only to extend her life by a few years.
Dr. Novick, plagued with nightmares of this lost life, was determined to save other children. In the midst of Croatia’s war to break away from Yugoslavia, Dr. Novick accepted an invitation to go to Zagreb to operate on children suffering from congenital heart disease. Here initiated his program of performing pediatric cardiac surgery, providing the skills and training necessary for that country’s doctors to go on and save their own children. This first trip, and the program of saving lives paired with education, led to the creation of the International Children’s Heart Foundation. On that first mission trip to Croatia, Bill operated on 14 children, the first of whom was  a 10-year-old boy named Zoran, who had  tricuspid valve atresia. The tragedy of the Nigerian girl led to the triumph of this boy receiving his surgery in 1993. Then 6,999 children later, led to a hospital in Tegucigalpa, Honduras in 2014 where a boy named Gabriel was waiting for his surgery.
Gabriel is a 2-year-old boy from Tegucigalpa who, at 4-months-old, was diagnosed with double outlet right ventricle defect and ventricular septal defect. An only child, his mother, Gabriella, is raising him by herself. She works at a local motorcycle shop and their home is 15 minutes away from the hospital. Gabriel loves to play soccer, rather than stay indoors and watch TV.  Due to his heart condition, Gabriel was forced to stop activities such as soccer. When Gabriel was 11-months-old, the doctors informed his mother that the treatments he was on were not working. As the surgery Gabriel’s heart required was not available in Honduras, the International Children’s Heart Foundation was his only shot. Gabriel was scheduled to receive treatment during our Babyheart mission in October of 2013, but he arrived sick and therefore, inoperable. His mother continued to hold onto hope and never give up. Babyheart wouldn’t give up either. On our 20th medical mission trip to Honduras, Gabriel received his operation.
On March 5, 2014 at 12:43 local time Gabriel became the 7000th child to receive a life-saving operation at the hands of a Babyheart surgeon. In this case, Dr. Max Sharma, Babyheart volunteer surgeon, operated on Gabriel. Dr. Kathleen Fenton, who has been with ICHF since 2006 heading up the program in Nicaragua, scrubbed in to assist. The nurses in the ICU said Gabriel was very playful, but shy and didn’t like getting his picture taken. They would have to sneak up on him and snap a few quick pictures before he noticed. Just like our other Babyheart patients, he was unique with his own special lively personality that only grew more as he recovered at the expert hands of Babyheart volunteers in the pediatric intensive care unit.

His mother was very grateful and said words cannot express what her heart feels now that her son’s heart is healed. One day, she hopes he will grow up to be an architect and live a healthy life. Gabriel recuperated well, as thousands of children before him did and walked out of the ICU two days later. Now, Gabriel has returned home to continue to recover, grow, and play soccer!
Six more children received operations the day of Gabriel’s operation, bring ICHF’s total operations to #7006. There was actually a running competition as to who would get patient #7000. Because ICHF rarely operates only in one place at one time there were two other missions occurring at the same time as Honduras. There were two programs operating on the other side of the world in Benghazi, Libya and Nasiriyah, Iraq. Both medical teams were communicating with Dr. Novick and ICU Coordinator & Clinical Researcher, Frank Molloy, as to who would obtain the lucky goal of being the medical mission trip that achieved the 7000th pediatric heart surgery.
Special recognition must be paid to ICHF’s collaborating charity in Tegucigalpa, Helping Hands for Honduras, led by Chairman and CEO Ron Roll. Helping Hands for Honduras have been an invaluable part of the Babyheart mission offering in-country logistical support and helping arrangements for patients to come to the hospital for treatment.
There’s a saying: “a great journey begins with a single step”. Dr. William Novick’s and ICHF’s journey started with a single heart, and that first healed heart in Croatia has led to 7000 hearts. 7000 children, 7000 hearts, millions of miles flown by medical volunteers, 33 countries. 368 mission trips. And there are no signs of slowing down as the medical missions continue. According to CHD global statistics there are still 6 million children waiting for heart surgery worldwide. Babyheart is striving to reach them all. ICHF will hopefully soon be celebrating 10,000 healed hearts!
Congratulations to our Babyheart team of volunteers for this accomplishment!
Babyheart team members who served on this mission:
Dr. Max Sharma, Pediatric Cardiac Surgeon

Dr. Kathleen Fenton, Pediatric Cardiac Surgeon, ICHF
Nitasha Joyner, Perfusionist
James O’Leary, MD, Anesthesiologist
Nelson Varas, MD, Anesthesiologist
Mark Gelatt, MD, Cardiologist
Joel Lutterman, MD, Interventional Cardiologist
Enrique Carrion, MD, Intensivist
Barbara Ferdman, MD, Intensivist
Nita Mohanty, MD Intensivist
Stacey Marr,  PICU Nurse Practitioner & Educator, ICHF
Lindsay Bailer, Respiratory Therapist
Roy Morris, Biomedical Engineer, ICHF
Andrea Yuel, ICU Nurse & Educator
Maggie Wong, PICU Nurse
Laura McKenzie, ICU Nurse
Colette Brodt, ICU Nurse
Justine Mize, ICU Nurse
Sarah Harrison, ICU Nurse

Filed Under: Uncategorized

March 5, 2014

Babyheart Acquires New Partner in Basin Glove

Old friends come together to save lives
Neil Morris and Dr. William Novick and are in the same Fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha. Bill was a founding father of their Fraternity at Troy University. Neil is a registered nurse and while still in college he heard of Bill’s organization and thought that he was doing such a wonderful thing with helping children.
Neil recently invented a product called Basin Glove, a disposable wash basin liner that prevents hospital acquired infections.
He contacted Dr. Novick to see if this product would help his cause. Bill offered to monitor the product to see how Basin Glove helped to prevent post surgical infections.

Dr. Novick confirmed that the product appeared to be helping at which point Neil offered to donate Basin Glove as needed.

Thank you Neil, for your charity, entrepreneurship, and inventing a great product like Basin Glove !

Now support our partners and visit Basin Glove’s website below !

Basin Glove 

Filed Under: Uncategorized

March 5, 2014

Mia’s Mission…to save children’s hearts

Mia Hattaway is only 7 years old and she raised $125 for the International Children’s Heart Foundation. She was getting tired of the fundraisers at her school and never knowing where or who her money was helping. Because she lost her grandfather to heart problems she wanted to explore charities that served people suffering from heart conditions. She and her mother found the International Children’s Heart Foundation via the 4 star rating on Charity Navigator. They visited the website, Babyheart.org, saw the pics and videos and knew they found the right place, an organization that helps children Mia’s age and all ages suffering from congenital heart defects. She applied something she loved doing, making rainbow bracelets, and posted her own fundraising page.

The funds she raised have gone towards children in the latest Babyheart mission in Santiago, Dominican Republic.

Mia’s Mission

Filed Under: Uncategorized

February 20, 2014

Babyheart Loses a Dear Friend

The International Children’s Heart Foundation lost a dear friend this week. Samuel Cox recently passed away at the age of 96. He was a Memphian, a business owner, a WW II veteran, a family man and he supported ICHF. His business, Alert Terminal Warehouse, allowed ICHF to store donated and purchased medical supplies and equipment at no charge. ATW’s financial and logistical support has helped save countless lives of children throughout the world over the years. We are indebted to Samuel Cox for his support of the Babyheart mission. ICHF wishes to extend our deep felt thoughts and prayers to his family during this time.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the International Children’s Heart Foundation.

 

SAMUEL A. COX, JR., died February 18, 2014 at the age of 96. He was born on February 3, 1918 in New Orleans, LA to the late Agnes M. Barilleaux and Samuel A. Cox, Sr. He graduated from Warren Eastern High School and attended Tulane University. He married Audrey G. Ackermann on February 8, 1942 at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, and they remained happily married for a remarkable 72 years. One of the ”Ghost Mountain Boys” of the New Guinea campaign of World War II, he was one of its few survivors. After his honorable discharge from the Army, his military records were destroyed in a fire; after many years and extensive efforts to reconstruct records of his service in 2001, Senator Fred Thompson awarded Sam a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for valor in the Pacific at a ceremony that was held at the Peabody Hotel. Sam and Audrey moved to Memphis, TN in 1955 where they established a thriving business, Alert Terminal Warehouse, that today is a third generation family enterprise. Sam loved spending time at the beach and at his and Audrey’s lake house at Pickwick; he was an accomplished hunter and fisherman, teaching his sons and grandchildren those skills. He was a good man, always kind and patient, with an endless reserve of common sense and realism. Ever a gentleman, he was extremely protective of and devoted to his wife and family. Outgoing and gregarious, he loved people and they invariably loved him in return. Sam was a member of the International Warehouseman’s and Logistics Association, the Memphis Warehouseman’s Association, the Southeastern Warehouseman’s Association, and the Memphis Traffic Club. He was also Flotilla Commander of the Coast Guard Auxiliary and a member of Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Church of the Holy Spirit. He was also active in Boy Scouts of America. He was loved by his family and many friends and will be greatly missed by all. He is survived by his wife Audrey, his sons, Samuel A. Cox III, Robert W. Cox (Karen), and Timothy J. Cox; by his grandchildren, Samuel A. Cox IV (Lalla), Caroline A. Cox (Galen Gower) and Kevin W. Cox; and by his great-grandchildren, Jackson Cox and Addison Cox, and numerous nieces, nephews and extended family. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the International Children’s Heart foundation. They are also deeply grateful to the hospice staff and to the caregivers, and for the pastoral care received from the Church of the Holy Spirit. the family will receive visitors on Friday, February 21 from 5-7 p.m. at Memorial Park Funeral Home. A funeral mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. on Saturday, February 22 at Church of the Holy Spirit, 2300 Hickory Crest Dr., Memphis, TN, with entombment to follow in Memorial Park Mausoleum.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

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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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