This week we were able to help three children without subjecting them to the trauma of an open-heart surgery.
A procedure in which a catheter is inserted through the femoral artery, all the way into the heart, and ultimately used to correct a number of different heart defects. Recovery times from these types of procedures are considerably shorter and the procedure itself is considerably less risky for the patient. These patients don’t stay “parked” in an already crowded Intensive Care Unit and typically end up going home in a much shorter period of time than even the fastest surgery patients.
The International Children’s Heart Foundation team prefers to use this method whenever possible, but finds it particularly helpful with older females who might otherwise be considered less desirable for marriage with a huge scar down the sternum.
All three kids who received cardiac cath intervention this week are discharged and playing safely at home; even while we have two in ICU and a handful still in the ward. Thanks for making our training and surgery mission happen this week. This Remedy Mission and the various diagnostic, interventional, surgical, and administrative techniques learned locally this week will continue to save lives long after all these kids go home!
Have you enjoyed this week? We have! Please consider making a donation for our next mission if you believe in what we’re doing by clicking the DONATE link in the header above.
Remedy Missions are international pediatric heart surgery teams that we bring to Iraq to to perform lifesaving heart surgeries and develop the infrastructure for the future. If you’re on Twitter this week be sure to use the #Remedy or #RemedyMission hashtag to describe all the good news coming out of Iraq this week via @preemptivelove and @babyheart_org. If you’re on Facebook, “Share” this story with the button below.
Photos by Heber Vega.
