Fall mission 2013 day #6 (Wednesday)

Well..we are past the half way point of the mission with just 3 days left! It has been flying by so quickly this week!
Rounds started in the ICU this morning with Daivid. He had a good night, so was extubated first thing this morning and doing well and resting comfortably. Ahmad, his roommate also has a good night..his saturations are stable , high 80’s this morning off oxygen and he finally got his water last night, so he is not as animated this morning!

Daivid:

Ahmad:

Abdullah still has some chest tube drainage so he may stay the majority of today in ICU or if slows down, go out to step-down floor later today. Mah’d had a fever overnight, probably some atelectasis of his lungs , but his art line and central line and chest tube will come out today.With the fever, we will likely watch him in the ICU one more day.
On the floor, Waleed and Taha and looking good and are ready to go
home today! Our first patients to be discharged from the mission-always a great feeling.

Taha is dressed and ready to go!:

Sondos who is also on the floor unit looks great today as well and isn’t crying when we see her this
Morning -she is either feeling better or getting use to seeing us now.

Sondos sleeping:

We had early morning visitors–the Rotary club of Amman cosmopolitan board members visit the children. Dr. Nawar Fariz, Marwan Hayek, Rami Sha’anan, Lamia Yassine, and GOLA president Sirene Khurma. We also had a special visitor –Simona Bishouti, vice-president of ABC bank, which is the largest benefactor of GOLA. We visited each of the children, and Sirene presented the families on the step down floor with specially hand-made quilts for each of the children, with a hand-stitched square on each one with the GOLA logo. Each one is different and such an amazing gift for the families to remember their benefactors that helped make their heart surgery possible.
(Left)..Dr. Nawar, Simona, with Waleed
Right (Waleed’s mother, Sirene, Rasha)

Marwan Hayek, Simona , Waleed and Waleed’s father

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Waleed receiving his quilt with the GOLA logo:

Simona and Taha:

Taha receiving his quilt:

Rami Sha’abam , Marwan Hayek and Simona Bishouti with Taha:

Taha with the thumbs up for GOLA:

Sonos receiving her quilt from Sirene:

Sonos and her mother:

The first case for today is Osama Ishaq Atieh Mughrabi, the 5 yr old we had previously operated on in a 2008 mission for sinus venosus ASD and partial anomalous pulmonary veins. He has been doing well since that surgery , but then a year or so ago was noted to have developed a subaortic membrane and some very mild regurgitation of his aortic valve -so he had the membrane removed today. All went very smoothly with the surgery and he went to ICU and was extubated shortly thereafter.

Osama shortly after returning to the ICU:

In between cases, we finally were able to meet Meron Mazin Yacob, a 5 month old baby with Tetralogy of Fallot who was referred to us from Iraq just a few weeks ago. He has a fairly small pulmonary valve and his saturations are ~79-80%. The Tom Deierlein foundation out of New York provides the funding for our Iraqi patients-on this mission-for Daivid and Meron tomorrow. He will be our first care tomorrow. We told the family, who originates from Bagdad but now lives in Irbil, that the Tom Deierlein Foundation is having their annual fundraiser tomorrow night (12/5) in NYC and that Meron will be talked about as one of the recipients of their fundraising efforts! The parents are so grateful for this opportunity to have their baby’s heart disease repaired-and truly were excited to hear that Meron would be talked about at the fundraiser.
Meron and his parents:

Mark, Meron and his parents:

The second operation today is Alyaa’ Moh’d Ali Adqes, a 17 yr old girl from Jordan with a very large ASD secundum. There was not enough tissue on either side of the defect to be able to use a device to close it in the catheterization lab. She did well during the surgery-the hole between the upper chambers measures almost 28 mm. (A little more than an inch!)

Alyaa’ before surgery:

The second case for tomorrow will be a 2 yr old girl from the northern city of Ramtha in Jordan(they are originally from Syria) named Rafeef Ahmad Saleh Al Refa’i with a moderate size VSD.

Rafeef:

During evening rounds, we had another visiting group of Rotarians with Fares Shaddad, bearing gifts for the children and visiting with the families.
They were so excited to see the children, they were like their own paparazzi!

Sonos and her siblings:

Sonos was perfect for the crowd!:

The conclusion of the day was spent at Sirene’s beautiful home with a American style Thanksgiving meal . Friends, colleagues , Rotarians and GOLA members all gathered for an incredible meal to celebrate the success of the GOLA program and the work that has been done this far (as well as a beautiful cake to celebrate Mark’s birthday last week!) It was an amazing gathering of so many people who have all joined together for one common goal-to help heal hearts of children in this region.