Babyheart Mission Macedonia

A photographer’s first voyage on ICHF’s first Babyheart medical mission to Skopje, Macedonia

Humanitarian missions are a labor of love, with equal parts of each. They’re also full of hows… How are things going to go, how will the kids do, how is the culture different to what I’m used to? There’s an excitement to not knowing any of these things and a similar excitement as the answer to each question is found through experience.

There are always two aspects to any mission. The external aspects that generate the questions above and the internal aspect of team and patient where there are no questions at all. I KNOW the team is here to fight for the patient, I KNOW the skills of each individual is beyond question, I KNOW the mother and family of each child we see loves their kid with the utmost intensity. I KNOW what’s at stake.

Macedonia, from my perspective, was a beautiful experience. After a grueling flight from Denver I was rewarded by a pretty morning and short drive from the airport to the hotel where the team was staying. No matter where I go, the drive from the airport to the city always sets my impression of a place and this drive was no exception. We passed small parcels of land that had obviously been farmed for a long time, new housing developments and older homes long abandoned. I saw old men fishing in what looked like drainage canals and groups of kids playing basketball at a graffiti covered rec area. I saw in abundance what I call “the sameness” of everywhere I’ve ever been, people going about their day, working hard to support their families. The thing that was different here, was the destruction. There are places you had to look for it but there are small reminders in Skopje of the devastating earthquake in 1963 that set this country back so far. The best example is the train station in Downtown Skopje that was left as it stood the day of the quake, stopped clock and all.

My job as photographer is twofold, to document what the team is doing to show both the world and you as a donor the good works you make possible and to give the kids and their families a voice. It’s a visual voice but that’s enough to start a dialog between them and the viewer. I feel this is the most important aspect of my job, to make that connection between two people who will probably never meet, between two people, one in desperate need for help and one who CAN help. Here in Macedonia there were no shortage of children in need of lifesaving help and fortunately a team here who could provide that help, the Babyheart medical mission team.

On my first day I was introduced to a woman and her son who’s story was tragic. I wish I could post photos of her son but at her request I won’t. She had had 6 miscarriages and her little boy with the sick heart is her last chance at having a child in her life. Even though her son was scared at being poked and prodded and apprehensive about the army of strangers around him, you could tell he was all boy inside. You could also tell the bond he had with his mother was deep and unshakable. Although I can’t go into too much detail about his case, I can tell you his story had a happy ending…

There were 11 cases done on this mission. I’m unique as far as the team goes because I can’t compartmentalize. Each medical team member has a specific role to play, surgeon, scrub, cardiologist, SICU… I am a participant in my own way for the entire case. I’m there in the beginning for the screening, I’m in the OR for the procedure, I wait with the family for their child to come up from surgery, I’m there in the SICU post op when a family member gets to come in and see their baby for the first time and hopefully I get to come back at some point and see a happy healthy kid playing at his home. This breadth of experience gives me a unique position to be able to comment on the miracles that the ICHF team does with your support. Every volunteer and donor should be proud of the lives they touch because saving innocent children is the highest calling a person can answer.

The stories of each of the families on this mission was different and compelling. As the photographer, I have the privilege (sometimes curse) of really getting to know the families. I share their joy when cases go well and their grief when there’s nothing that can be done. I hope through my pictures from this trip, you’re able to share some of that too.

Kevin Whitcomb

Babyheart photographer and guest blogger

 www.eyesofman.org

Tags: baby heart, babyheart.org, heart, ICHF, Macedonia, medical mission, pediatric, Photography, Skopje

A Child’s Heart Echoes in the Desert

By ICHF guest blogger and medical volunteer, Sigurdur Stephensen

            We are standing by the side of the road in the desert and staring into the distance.  The sand is grayer than I had expected, somewhat grayish yellow and it stretches as far as the eye can see.  No camels, no donkeys, no Beduin tents. Only this straight road like a pencil mark on a grey piece of paper. Outside it is 20 degrees Celcius and I wonder what I was thinking when I decided to travel here wearing a fleece jacket.

We are waiting for the police escort that was supposed to follow us from the airport in Basra to our destination in Nasiriyah. In Basra we had only been greeted by two bearded guys dressed in suits. I travelled together with Don, a perfusionist from Chicago, who is here for the second time. He recognized one of the men – Ahmed – from his previous trip. Ahmed walked straight up to Don, kissed him on both cheeks and said: “I love you.“ Don looked rather surprised by this warm welcome. I on the other hand received no kisses and no confessions of love. Then we headed in to the desert in an old van. After half an hours driving the police called and wondered where the hell we were.

We bend down and look at the small stones by our feet. Their surface is smooth as if  it’s been polished, which is excactly what it has been. Sand polished for centuries. I throw a green stone into the sand. Now is the religious festival of Shia muslims in Iraq, when pilgrims march to the city of Karballah to remember the death of Hussein ibn Ali, who was a cousin of the prophet Mohammed. Because of recent bombings directed against the pilgrims, many of them walk all dressed in white, like a burial shroud, so they will be ready in case they die on their journey. I mention the bombings to Don. He had heard on his last mission that often the terrorists aren’t necessarily looking for a specific target. They just go out driving on the roads and wait until they find a target worth blowing up. “Like a couple of a whities” I think to myself. “Two representatives of the coalition of the willing, who stand sweating by the side of the road.” Despite the fleece jacket and the heat outside this new information gives me shivers down my spine. I just want to crawl back into the van. Maybe hide under the backseat.

International Children’s Heart Foundation and moral speculations

We have come to Iraq as part of a team from the International Children’s Heart Foundation (ICHF) (www.babyheart.org). This organization was founded by Dr. William Novick, a pediatric heart surgeon from Memphis, TN. The aim is to treat children with congenital heart defects in the developing countries and train the local staff so they can, in due time, acquire the knowledge and experience necessary to treat the children without external help. In the year 2011 thirty two missions were organized by ICHF to twelve countries where 450 heart operations were performed. In 2012 the number of operations doubled. I discovered the organizations, like ICHF online and went for my first medical mission to Honduras in October, 2010. Honduras is a poor country in central America that was hit by hurricane Mitch in 1998. Five thousand people lost their lives, 33000 houses and 70% of the roads were destroyed. In the beginning I couldn’t decide wether to join these highly specialized help organizations, or some other that focus on more common health problems. Diseases like congenital heart defects are highly specialized and the treatment is expensive. A heart operation done by ICHF costs on average $2500, which is much more than the treatment of other more common and serious diseases – such as pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria – although, in comparison to the Western world, these operations are relatively cheap.

Back to Iraq

We drive from the guarded guest house, a kind of  “safe house”, to the hospital with police escort. Blue lights, sirens and loaded machine guns. I think the escort draws unneccessary attention and people stop in the streets to watch. I would have preferred walking to work. Or riding a donkey. Dressed in burqa. But I get used to the false sense of security and now it’s time to go to work. But it all starts pretty miserably. In the first operation an eleven year old boy dies. He came from the Kurdish region and was basically asymptomatic when he arrived for an operation for a ventricular septal defect and aortic stenosis. The following day a two and a half year old girl is operated for an atrioventricular septal defect. The operation goes well but during the night she develops pulmonary hypertension that does not respond to intensive treatment. Heart operations in the developing countries often pose increased risk in many senses. The children often have lived with their heart defect for a long time which has created additional problems such as pulmonary hypertension (PHT) and since they are often malnourished they are more vulnerable in the perioperative period. Secondly the knowledge and experience of the local staff is limited which increases the risk for mistakes. The general treatment customary in most pediatric intensive care units in the Western world can often not be provided. Medicines such as nitric oxide, used for PHT, and extra corporal membrane oxygenation is generally not available.

After the difficulties of the first days things start getting better. We suffer no major incidents even though two children have to be reoperated. My job is to examine the children pre- and postoperatively, do echocardiography and take part in deciding which child will need an operation this time and which one can wait. It is evident that we are only going to be able to treat a fraction of the long waiting list. We operate on 15-20 children in two weeks, but each year 30,000 children are born in Iraq with a heart defect that will need an operation.

Teaching and training of the local staff is a big part of our job. The doctors usually speak good english but the nurses and other staff usually do not. The nursing staff are almost exclusively men and often they have not chosen their profession themselves. Therefore not everyone is in the profession because of interest or vision which can be reflected in how receptive they are to our teaching. I try to share my knowledge but I also learn a great deal myself. In Western countries  congenital heart defects are usually detected in the first months of life and the patients that require surgery are operated within a few months of birth, or before they develop a lot of symptoms. Therefore, we seldom see the longtime effects of an untreated heart defect. For instance, when I was in Honduras I saw a 7 month old child with transposition of the great arteries, which generally is repaired within a few days of birth in the West.

Man-made catastrophies

Iraq was never hit by a natural catastrophe like Honduras. Perhaps more like a man-made catastrophy. But the prize was much higher. The tornado Saddam Hussein created didn’t just blow over the country in a few days – he had 24 years to go about obliterating his own people. The only pediatric cardiologist in Nasiriyah – and one of only ten pediatric cardiologist in the whole country of 30 million people – put it rather mildly the other day. He said: “The main problem of this country is that it has never had a decent leader!“ As long as I can remember Iraq has been at war. I remember recurrent news of casualties in the Iran-Iraq war, that led to nothing in a nine years period (1980-1988), than one million fallen soldiers. Next on the program was the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and ongoing use of chemical weapons against the Kurds in northern Iraq. And then came the invasion of the West in Iraq in 2003 with the unprecedented participation of Iceland as one of the parties in the so called “coalition of the willing”. The last soldiers from that miserable mission left the country about a month before our arrival. I had expected to meet people suffering from post traumatic stress disorder after decades of fighting and fear of suicide bombing, that have escalated after the evacuation of the American soldiers. On the contrary I met positive, smiling and brave people who didn’t look as if they had endured fear, suppression and war for decades. After repeatedly asking a local pediatrician about the effect of the fighting and the insecurity on daily life, he admitted that war had probably become a part of daily life for the Iraqi people. A help organisation member from America, Preemptive Love Coalition, who originally brought ICHF to Iraq, stated that the first months after the invasion in 2003, foreigners were greeted as friends and invited into peoples’ homes, even if they were total strangers. But as the occupation dragged on and there were no major improvements the hospitality of the locals declined. Now they are more careful and avoid associating with foreigners.

But Saddam Hussein can’t proclaim all the honour of Iraq’s miserable health system. In that matter the United Nations (UN) have a heavy cross to bear. Before the year 1990, 93% of the Iraqi people had access to a health system that was among the best in the Middle-East. After the invasion of Kuwait the UN put sanctions on Iraq and as a result the economic status, as well as the health system, plummeted. Saddam Hussein restricted expenses to health system by 90%. Hospitals and outpatient clinics were closed, there was a shortage of medicine and medical equipment and health personnel fled abroad. The incidence of congenital defects escalated as did malignancy amongst children and adults. This is believed to be the effect of the use of chemical weapons against the Kurds in Northern Iraq, where the incidence of congenital heart defects has multiplied. But the sanctions of the UN also directly affected the people’s health status. Child mortality, under five years of age, doubled from the year 1989 to 1999. Many died of hunger. Maternal malnutrition and failing maternal care also increased the incidence of congenital defects. When the willing nations invaded the country in 2003, the weapons were used against the main pillars of society such as roads, power stations, water supplies, sewers and health institutions. So-called depleted uranium was used in the warheads. This is a radioactive metal with a prolonged halftime. The dust from the explosion, which is thought to be carcinogenic, becomes dispersed in the atmosphere and settles in the soil. Thus the incidence of many malignant diseases has increased at the same time that the means for diagnoses and treatment has diminished. Actions, such as the sanctions used by the UN, reflect the deficiency of the organizations, their naive view of the world and the indifference for the real consequences caused by these actions.

End of the road

            In our trip to Iraq seventeen children underwent heart operations on defects such as ventricular septal defect, transposition of the great arteries, tetralogy of Fallot, atrioventricular septal defect, aortic stenosis, double outlet right ventricle, subvalvular aortic stenosis, single ventricle and persistent arterial duct. Two children needed reoperation and two children died. A few children that had waited in the hospital for two weeks for surgery could not be operated this time. Hopefully they will be first on the list when the next mission arrives in three months.

Three days before our departure reporters from several TV stations arrived at the hospital. They were informed about the purpose of the mission and interviewed some of the staff. To keep a low profile this was not supposed to take place until the last day. When one of the chief physicians was asked why they had changed the schedule, and if this wouldn’t jeopardize our safety, he replied: “Don’t worry. You are low value targets.”

Early one morning in late January we are two low value targets – one from Iceland and the other from Belarus – sitting in the back of an old van driving along the same pencil mark as before. We are on our way to the airport. It’s still pitch dark and we are freezing in the back. This time I am glad that I brought the fleece jacket with me. The driver is drowsy and it looks to me that he is about to fall asleep at the wheel under a full moon. I keep an eye on him in the rear view mirror. We lag behind the police escort and when we finally catch up with them the drivers get into a heated argument. That’s all good because our man is suddenly wide awake. Gradually the day awakens and the desert sand gets a reddish hue in the morning sun. The Iraqi nation is at a crossroads. In some aspects it is like a man waiting by the side of the road in the desert. The invaders are gone, at least for the time being and the people have their own government and president. However, down under is disagreement and hatred between groups of Shia muslims, Sunni muslims and the Kurds, that has been boiling for centuries. I certainly hope that the people will make the right decisions and choose to have peaceful communications with their fellow countrymen and neighbours. And also that the nations that represented the coalition of the willing, now live up to their expectations and prove that the reason for the invasion in 2003 was really concern for the Iraqi people and not something completely different. That can be done by supporting help organizations like the International Children‘s Heart Foundation in this war-torn country.

Sources

http://www.babyheart.org

http://www.casi.org.uk/info/garfield/dr-garfield.html

http://www.casi.org.uk/info/unicef/990816qa.html

http://johnpilger.com/

http://preemptivelove.org/

Tags: America, babyheart, cardiologist, congenital heart defects, doctor, health care, heart, ICHF, Iraq, pediatric, perfusionist, preemptive love coalition, united nations

A Matter of Supply

Despite the heroic efforts of a shoestring staff in Memphis, it often appears that these Babyheart missions are held together by luck and, to channel Blanche Dubois, the kindness of strangers. The trick to a successful mission isn’t just the doctors, nurses combined with the competence and enthusiasm of our hosts. Sometimes it is an unexpected cocktail of little things we take for granted.

I’ve never been in a hospital, for example, that ran out of gauze pads or pain killers, and for that matter, neither have you. To that end, Martina Panvanic in the Memphis headquarters asked Janine Evans, ICU nurse and the Benghazi mission’s coordinator, to put out the call for supplies. A team email went out and volunteers from Australia, Canada, Belarus, Holland and the US asked their respective hospitals for “disposables” to bring with them. Leaving from Memphis as I was, Martina gave me a huge black duffle that weighed in at 26 kilos.

Traveling with the marauding doctors and nurses of the ICHF is a good way to meet people you wouldn’t normally run across. Granted, most of them are medical professionals, or at someone who desperately needs their help. Every once in a while, though, you get a hail or some help from completely unexpected places, like from behind the counter at an airport gate.

The first leg of my flight to Detroit was delayed long enough to ensure that I’d miss the connection to Paris. The fellow working the Delta counter, Larry, started to do the math to see how to reroute me. “I’ve got a checked bag I can’t lose.” I said, which I’m sure is something he hears eight times a day.

“Describe the bag.”

“You could park a car in it.” I started to say you could fit a body in it but the modern airport is a place with little to no sense of humor. I couldn’t recall any Fiat-in-a-bag terror plots.

“What’s in it?”

“Donated medical supplies.”

“Why are you going to Benghazi with a massive duffle of donated medical supplies?”

It’s a fair question in this day and age, and not one that is answered quickly. I launched into ICHF pitch and the weird perimeters of a Babyheart mission. Larry gave me a determined look, “Pediatric cardiac surgery, huh? I had three open-heart surgeries before the age of 12. Don’t worry, we’ll get your bags there.” Larry turned to the Delta lady beside him, “What’s the number for Salt Lake?”

“That’s the wrong direction.” I pointed out helpfully. He held up a finger in the universal signal that I should stop being helpful.

I was rerouted to a flight that was about to leave for Minneapolis/St. Paul that was scheduled land about five minutes after my connection to Paris was to start boarding. Even on this tight schedule, our approach was delayed as we circled the airport overhead while another plane lingered on the runway.

With fifteen minutes before my next take off, I set off in a mad dash through the airport to the connecting gate. This, I’m sure, was hilarious as I’m built for comfort, not speed. At the gate a Delta employee looked up and fairly screamed, “Mr. Murff!” She more or less pushed me into the plane.

Within a few minutes I was in the air and on my way to Paris. Anyone who travels at all know that if you hustle you can occasionally make a flight by the skin of your teeth. Your luggage is rarely so lucky. And now I had eight whole hours to think about this development.

We landed on time at Charles De Gaulle airport, which is very French: sleek, good-looking, and utterly convoluted. It’s a wildly held belief among Americans who watch too much television that you can see the Eiffel Tower from every window in Paris. This is wrong. I ambled through CDG, found my gate, and asked the stylish clerk about my baggage. “It is here at the airport.” She said with a pretty smile. “Is there a problem?”

“Not at all.”

The bag, and everything in it, made it to Istanbul and onto our final flight into Benghazi…where it was impounded for several hours for no good reason. But that’s hardly Larry’s fault.  I’ve really got to thank him.

Richard Murff

Benghazi, Libya

Tags: babyheart, Benghazi, Charles De Gaulle, children, congenital heart disease, ICHF, International children's heart foundation, Libya, medical mission, Paris, pediatric

Joy to the World !

Tags: baby, babyheart, birth defect, christmas, congenital, heart, ICHF, Novick, pediatric, philanthropy, third world

Award Winning Photo

Award Winning Photo by Jon Vidar

ICHF was in Sulimaniyah, Iraq in August performing heart surgeries on children — part of the Remedy Mission in conjunction with the Preemptive Love Coalition. While Dr William Novick was operating, photographer Jon Vidar captured this image of surgery as reflected in a heart monitor machine. The photo received the People’s Choice Award at FotoWeekDC 2010!

Congratulations to Jon Vidar (http://www.jonvidarphotography.com) for capturing some of what our medical teams do in the field!

ICHF will be traveling back to Iraq December 4-18 to operate on more children. It is estimated that there are more than 4,000 children in Iraq waiting for life-saving surgery. Worldwide, more than 1,000,000 children are born each year with a heart defect — making this the number one birth defect globally.

Tags: baby, cardiac, heart, ICHF, Iraq, Medical, pediatric, Photography, third world, Vidar

Volunteer perspective on ICHF

ICHF strives to go to poor countries to operate on children suffering from the world’s #1 birth defect – Congenital Heart Defects. But, ICHF is also committed to helping each country build its own self-sustaining pediatric cardiac care/surgery program over time.  The words below are from medical volunteer, Barry Markovitz, MD.

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As a pediatric intensivist, I wanted to do volunteer medical work for a long time, but never came across an opportunity to practice my skills, the only thing I know – pediatric critical care – until I learned about ICHF. My true passion is pediatric cardiac critical care, and when I found ICHF, I jumped. Big time. This organization has accomplished so much, in so many disparate places, it boggles the mind.

Barry Markovitz, MD with patient in Dominican Republic

Tags: baby heart, cardiac, Dominican Republic, ICHF, Markovitz, pediatric

D E D I C A T I O N / Dedicação

Tags: Brazil, cardiac, children, congenital, heart, ICHF, international, Novick, pediatric

Current Ukraine Medical Trip

From May 8th through May 22nd, ICHF has a medical team in Kharkiv (or Kharkov), Ukraine. Kharkiv is the 2nd largest city in Ukraine.  The city is located in the northeast of the country. As of 2006, its population is 1,461,300.  Every year, 6000 children are born in Ukraine with genetic heart diseases. Only will half will receive the surgeries that they need to survive, and will die. (Info from our partner, Chernobyl Children’s Project).

Some pictures and stories (Thanks to Frank Molloy of ICHF and Caroline Lonsdale, Volunteer)….

This is Natalie – age 24 – she was operated on Thursday 13th of May – the fourth day – of the 8th Mission of ICHF to Kharkiv. Interviewed Friday 14th May
When I met her on friday morning she slightly surprised me by speaking reasonably fluent English – she called me over in english – at this time she still had most of her tubes and wires in place – “Is my operation over, was I good?” – she was at this time less than 24 hours after her surgery “you have golden hands” she told me – a message I think to the whole team – she was hot and uncomfortable and I helped her sit up and sponged her back with a cold flannel -
She asked and I told her that today we would be taking out all her tubes – not to worry – and that she would have some medicine to make her a little sleepy and pain free while we did that , we did that – and she slept off the medication for a few hours – and then I took this photo..
Natalie is 24 – pictured with her sister Dina – 26 – Natalie was born with an abnormal Aortic Valve which had become leaky and was in need of replacing. The defect had been diagnosed 2 weeks after birth – so Natalie knew she had a heart problem all her life – with this type of defect the usual plan is to wait as long as possible before any surgery – as the natural valve can still function well for many years. Natalie told me how in recent years she had become increasingly tired and sweaty and get a headache with any exertion- she also described how her hands and feet would swell up and she described them as “ugly” – she likes to swim, and do disco dancing  but could not do this as much as she wanted to in recent years. When asked what she was most looking forward to in life now – she said (through her sister Dina  whose English was better than Natalies’ ) she wants to satisfy her soul, be pretty – get a husband and have children . Natalie and her sister both work as sales managers – which they described as “not hard work’ meaning physically she could manage that type of work with her heart problem.
She has a yellow and red cat – likes reading, swimming in the Black sea – likes driving a car and wishes someday to drive  a motor boat, a popular pastime on the black sea by Odesa.
Natalie was very tired at the time of this picture – she wanted to leave the ICU and go back to her room – because she could not sleep here – her oxygen tube had been recently taken off her and if her oxygen levels stayed OK I told her she would for sure be able to leave in the next hours or two – I also told her that – subject to her surgeon Olga ( the local chief cardiac surgeon) she would probably be able to go home on Monday. Natalie was very surprised at this – and I followed up by asking what she was most looking forward to when she got home – “Drinking lots of cold water-” she said (fluid restriction after cardiac surgery makes many patients feel very thirsty) – she then looked away from me – grimaced – I thought she was going to laugh but she started crying , wiped her eyes – and said that the other thing she was most looking forward to was holding her mother, and her brother.

Some of the other patients include:

Kamila Cherkasova – 25 days old. Double outlet right ventricle. Right BT shunt performed. Kamila has been sick, but is getting slowly better. Remains in ICU, but is not on a ventilator.

Elina Lemoschenco –  1 year old. Patent ductus arteriosus. Elina had a PDA ligation, did very well. Discharged from ICU the following day.
 
Tatyana Golubkova – 17 years old. Aorto-atrial fistula and PFO. Tatyana had this repaired, extubated quickly and discharged from ICU the following day.

Achkason Bogdam – 16 months old. VSD closure. Extubated quickly and doing well.
 
Tatyana Lazazova – 3 years old. PDA ligation. Extubated quickly, and doing well.
 
Angelica Kurligina. 17 years old.  Atrial septal defect repair, also found to have total venous anomalous drainage in OR (suspected by our cardiologist) which was also repaired. Angelina was extubated within 20 minutes of arrival in ICU. Discharged to the ward the next day.
 
Julia Kostomarova: 4months old. Tetralogy of Fallot with patent foreman ovale. Complete repair done. Extubated the following day. Remains in ICU at present with heart rhythm issues, but doing well.  

Kristina Terehova: 4 years old. Tetalogy of Fallot with right pulmonary artery stenosis, who had had a previous BT shunt (not sure where) – Repaired. Extubated an hour after arrival in ICU. Should go to ward later this afternoon.
 
Dima Grudina: 2.5 years old. Atrial septal defect. Repaired. Extubated a couple of hours after arrival in ICU. Walked to the ward the next day.

Tags: cardiac, ICHF, Kharkiv, Novick, pediatric, Surgery, Ukraine

Honduras Trip Recap

Here is a great example of a recap of one of our 33 annual trips. These are real kids…just like your kids or kids you know! These are real parents who are worried sick about the future for their children suffering from life-threatening heart defects. Please take a moment to check this out by clicking below here: Honduras Trip Recap

Tags: cardiac, Child, defect, heart, Honduras, ICHF, pediatric

Welcome to the ICHF Blog !

The International Children’s Heart Foundation  (ICHF) is pleased that you are visiting our Blog! This will be a great way for you  to keep up-to-date with all the exciting developments occurring around the world with and through ICHF.

ICHF is a 501(c)(3) headquartered in Memphis, TN.  The mission of ICHF is to bring the skills, technology and knowledge to cure and care for children with congenital heart disease to developing countries. ICHF does this regardless of country of origin, race, religion or gender. We travel to these countries with a complete medical team and provide surgeries to the children for free. We also train the local medical professionals to perform these surgeries on their own eventually.

This fiscal year we have 33 two-week trips planned around the globe in countries including: Honduras, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Egypt, India, China, and the Philippines. We are on pace to provide life-saving heart surgeries to more than 800 children around the globe! On each trip we take a complete medical team of surgeon(s), anesthesiologists, perfusionists, intensivists, cardiologists, OR nurses, PICU nurses, etc.

We will be Blogging about: the trips we take and the lives we save; interesting stories about the children we serve around the world; stories about our various volunteers and staff; links to helpful information about Congenital Heart Defects; Links to other organizations around the globe helping children with heart defects; interesting statistics about congenital heart defects, etc.

We will include pictures and video. We will have Guest Bloggers. And….of course, we welcome your comments on ways to enhance this Blog!

This week we have full medical teams in Colombia and India. In the 1st Quarter of 2010 we operated on 172 children and expect to reach 180 children in the 2nd quarter!

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We are committed to updating this Blog on a regular basis so please check back often!

Tags: cardiac, cardiology, heart, international, pediatric, third world