Day 4 VTT Amman. September 21, 2016

We awoke to a most amazing sunrise in Amman….ready to start another beautiful day to help some more children.

ICU rounds in the morning were first and everyone did well overnight. Mujahed and Basel have all their lines out, will get their chest tubes removed and will transfer to the regular floor today. Note on Basel, he has been getting in and out of his bed, walking up and down the hallway, to the bathroom , then back in bed, many times trying to do it himself. Remember, #1–he had open heart surgery only 2 days ago!, but #2–he was the blue boy who could barely walk-now he can’t sit still!! This is the greatest reward for our team, and to all those that are involved in helping these families -a chance to be a normal kid!!!

 Dr. Riad and a happy Basel

 Basel making important phone calls to his friends 

Happy, happy smiling boy today !!! 

Mujahed also looking pretty happy this morning ! 

Amin also did well from yesterday and will get his lines removed today, diet advanced and get him up walking. Thanks to Riley child Life and the foundation for helping us be able to give gifts and shirts to all the children this week!

 ​

​Sheila giving Amin his toys today of course he needs something from our home-a Riley tee shirt !! 

Shadi still remains on the ventilator , we kept him sedated and paralyzed overnight because of his pulmonary hypertension. His X-ray looks like he still may need the ventilator for a bit and medications today to help support his oxygenation and continue to stabilize his blood pressure.

 shadi and his father 

 Sheila’s wonderful idea to frame a picture of Shadi and his father and Ruba made it all happen !! 

 Katy and Ruba came early to visit Shadi 

Dr. Riad then gave part 2 of his post-operative management lecture to the nursing and respiratory therapist staff. This lecture was based on clinical scenarios and was designed for audience participation to get them thinking about how to treat different post-operative situations .

 Our speaker with audience guests Dr. Kal, Diala, and Laila 

I did a pre-op echocardiogram on Laith, our 1st patient for this morning. He has a moderate -large VSD, mild-moderate pulmonary hypertension, and no other lesions or issues, so he will head down to the OR now to get ready for surgery .

 Laith and his mother 

Visited Tayem and Maryam on the floor. Maryam looks great, eating , and no problems overnight . She almost gave us a smile ! She will likely be discharged and go home today . 

 Funny Dr. Kal and Maryam 
Tayem has a headache this morning and a slight fever -he may have overdone it yesterday with all his visitors so we will likely not discharge him today and keep an eye on him.

 Tayem by midafternoon feeling better Tayem and the ladies- Anne, Sheila, Diala, his mother and Laila 

After Laith’s operation, TEE showed the large VSD was closed and PA pressures only slightly elevated, which is good, so should not have any major issues post-operatively like we had with Shadi.

 See the bright white area in the middle (of course you do), that’s the VSD patch! 

When Laith arrived back in the ICU, his mother, 2 grandmothers and aunt could hardly restrain themselves from trying to see him. While we were getting him situated , we tried to talk to them about their story . We found out they had left Syria after mom’s 2 brothers were killed and 1 was shot and left behind. The family then traveled through the desert to refugee camp in Jordan. After Laith’s father was arrested, the family left the camp and are working and living at a school. Laith also has a 5 yr old sibling. 

 Riad, Sheila, Rania and David in between cases pose for 5 seconds of downtime ! 

He was fairly wide awake shortly thereafter and because we had some difficulty ventilating him due to a large leak with the tube, we extubated him and although he needed a few breathing treatments, he did well. After a few hours and getting really agitated , we let mom feed him , and he was a much happier boy!

Lunch and goodies for the team and the patient’s families was again provided by our new friend Claude Toma and our own Rania Abbasi’s aunt, Sam, who lives in Palo Alto but is here with her son David (who is shadowing us this week) visiting friends in Jordan and graciously brought amazing sweets by for the entire team and staff.
On lunch break , I did pre-op evaluations and echocardiograms on our last 2 patients of the mission.
First, Nawaf A Alazaiz Aqasir Alrefa, a 4- 1/2 month old Syrian baby with severe failure to thrive and a large VSD. He only weighs 3.5 Kg (7.4 lbs for those non-metric people !). Likely barely above his birth weight , his mother told us he only takes 1/2 oz. of formula 5x/day, less than a newborn baby eats! He also takes a long time to eat, and sweats when he feeds-all signs of congestive heart failure that we see with children that have large VSDs. His echo shows a large VSD, no other defects.

The other child for tomorrow is Yousif Moh’d Ibraheim Alshoubaki, a 5 yr. old Palestinian child that lives in the same refugee camp as one of our original patients, Farrah (who we did a hemifontan and Fontan on and for those of you who have followed us long-term, was the refugee camp we visited in 2008). Yousif has a moderate size VSD, tricuspid regurgitation, with aneurysmal tissue closure and also no other defects. 

Yousif and his mother 

Marsell in the meantime was brought to the OR. Pre-op TEE confirmed a large VSD and an RV muscle bundle, also question of a small sub aortic membrane . Dr. T. closed the VSD, respected the RV muscle bundle and did find the start of a small subaortic membrane that he resected as much as he could without damaging the valve. Post-op TEE looked great.

Alex and Hani (perfusionist) are becoming fast friends in the OR, but we still miss you Mike 

Whiple we were busy in the OR, Shadi was extubated !!! He looks so comfortable while receiving a breathing treatment and certainly with his dad nearby and stroking his head. His father is so attentive to him, their story heartbreaking and we just love this family! Even the security guard with them seems to be taking to both the father and adorable little Shadi!! 
​​
 Shadi after extubation-so sweet 

 looking good a few hours later 

 Shadi’s father Ahmed is the best!

 Marsell returned to the ICU shortly before 4:00 and needed some volume. Otherwise he was pretty stable; but we wanted to wait to extubate him until after he received fresh frozen plasma. That was NOT Marsell’s plan–all of a sudden he woke up with a bang, nearly pulled the breathing tube out in his own , so we were forced to remove it. Once it was out, it was like he went into zen mode, calm as could be, wide awake, even played with the toys Sheila brought him-this only after about 2 hrs since surgery ended !!! 

Marsell totally calm after tube out 

Marsell and his mother 

 Sheila after giving Marsell his toy bag 

 Team at end of day-not exactly our best but we are still smiling!

But some are running out of gas-taking power naps whenever and wherever we can!! 

Long day at the hospital, we are looking a little scary, but we head home to get ready to go dinner with Walid Khalidi, the owner of the hospital, very nice treat to the end of a long day!

Dinner with Walel khalidi, GOLA board and our team at Fakradeen 

Addendum:Late pictures Below from dinner last night at Na’el and Ruba’s beautiful home 

Day 6 VTT Amman. September 23,2016

Day started with quick breakfast with Kal to his favorite local Friday breakfast spot

The on to the hospital for rounds to see everyone.

Everyone looked great with no issues overnight . Amin will go home today-he will make the 4th child home from this week.

Basel is a little more tired today and not eating as well–he will stay in the hospital for several more days as we don’t want to send him back to the camp until he is fully recovered.

Marsel will move down to the floor today and Laith likely later today or tomorrow.

Laith and Marsel  with the ICU nurses.

Shadi continues to do great and probably will watch at least one more day in the ICU.

Yousif and Jawwaf, our two patients from yesterday also are doing great just one day after surgery!

Yousif mustering half a smile! 

After leaving the hospital, the team headed down to spend the day at the Dead Sea. Was a fantastic way to end our trip with the beautiful scenery and culture and amazing sites of Jordan

The amazing view and the Dead Sea 

We want to thank everyone involved in this successful mission trip this week -it was a collective effort and a successful first VTT to be done in Amman.

This was the first, of at least four missions, to include professional training for Jordanian medical staff as Vocational Team Training mission on related topics in addition to the surgeries. Financially sponsored by a large global grant, supported by all local Rotary Clubs of Jordan, Palestine and many clubs in Cyprus, UAE, Armenia, Sudan, and international Rotary clubs mainly of Greenfield and Fishers and District 6560 in Indiana, USA in addition to The Rotary Foundation, and Gift of Life Amman (GOLA) and ChainofHope London (COH).

And like previous missions, it is organized, supported and additionally funded, executed by the team’s regular participants, medical doctors/surgeons and support team from Indianapolis, local Jordanian doctors and cardiologists,support staff from Chain of Hope, Al Khalidi Medical Center, ABC Bank , National Paints and Private funders and Gift of Life Amman

Significant recognition to GOLA and their board members, Rob Raylman from GOLI,  district 6560 and Greenfield, and Dr. Stephanie Kinnaman on her ongoing efforts to assist the team, all mission projects and funding.

Additionally, we would like to give a special thank you to Na’el and Ruba, GOLA president and his wife, the GOLA board members;  Diala, Laila, Usama for their hospitality, feeding us and driving us everywhere and especially for visiting the children and spending time with the families ; Dr. Sami, Hani, Dr. Mo, the ICU staff, the OR staff, nursing staff, for taking care of our team and the collaborative efforts by all this week. Thank you to Claude, Kareema and the Toma family for your generosity with food, goodies and helping translate with the patients.

Katy Woolley from Chain of Hope became not only a member of our team this week in their partnership with our mission team –but a true friend and we love her!!

We can never thank enough Dr. Kal Salaymeh-who takes care of each of us like we were one of his family members-his dedication to these missions and these children is amazing.

Lastly–I’d like to thank all my team members -Mark, Rania, Riad, Sheila and Alex–you guys did an amazing job this week– doing what you all do best-sharing your talents and passion for what you do and the love and expertise to these kids and their families! You  all are fantastic and I’m lucky to be part of this team.

Until the next time …..

Day 5. VTT Amman. September 22, 2016

It’s our last official operating day…no lecture series this morning , so headed to the hospital a little later. Think everyone liked the extra hour of sleep.

Made rounds in the ICU first -everyone had a great night ! Neither Kal nor Riad received any calls overnight on the ICU post-ops, even the 2 new pump cases from yesterday.

Started with Marsell, who after getting extubated and initially being calm, turned  into a wild man last night, eventually settled down and had a good night . He was even eating and drinking this morning, lines will come out and we will get him out of bed.

( Marsell taking his first bottle )

His roommate Laith had a great night and is back to his adorable smiling self this morning. His mother who was so scared and stressed yesterday even looks better this morning and much calmer. Before surgery he was breathing so fast and it’s so nice to see him breathing so comfortably after surgery.
Mark checking out his work 

Next door is Shadi–who looks fantastic this morning. He kept calling for his papa who was in the shower at the time, but once he saw his dad, his face lit. It is absolutely heartwarming to see this bond between these two. Dad sent Katy from Chain of Hope pictures of he and Shadi before they left Syria and came to the camp in Jordan, and dad looks so much younger and vibrant-you can tell his son’s heart problem and leaving his country and their situation has had a toll on him.  We have not heard that mom had their baby yet-but could happen anytime.
Dad and Shadi in Syria

His roomie Amin looks great this morning. His lines are out, he will get his chest tube pulled and transfer to the floor today. He will likely get discharged tomorrow .

Amin giving a big thumbs up

Down on the regular floors, we stopped by Tayem’s room first . Smiling as always, so cute and no more fever overnight. He is a team favorite so we all posed with him-he will get discharged to home today! Both patients from day 1 will be home as of today.

Sheila taking off Tayem’s dressing

Tayem showing us his big muscles

We then went downstairs to see the previous “blue boys” as I call them. Basel looked good-saturations were 98% at rest. We are still concerned about his prior symptoms in relation to his heart disease so we did a mini walk test on him down the hallway while checking his saturations -after he walked the hall, his saturations went down to 86%, then when he stopped, they quickly came back up. Parents said he would get blue and out of breath within a few steps previously, now they don’t notice any blueness. Basel himself says he already feels 5x better. We are thinking some of this may just be that he is very deconditioned and no strength. We are not sending him home for several days because of the fear that he would have to return to the camp and he may have an infection risk because of access to water and bathing facilities. We want to keep him closer to the hospital so that we can monitor his wound and not have any complications from the surgery.

  Basel doing his walk test down the hallway with Sheila

Last patient was Mujahed. He looks fantastic and is also ready to be discharged today.

First case for today is our little failing to thrive baby Nawwaf from Syria living in Jordan. Pre-op TEE confirmed his very large VSD, small PFO so Dr. T and his assistant Dr. Mo are going to try and do a primary repair , which means close the VSD with a patch. Hopefully in his small size, they will be able to see the majority of the defect because he will benefit and improve dramatically once this defect is gone.

 Nawwaf before surgery

Surgery over and TEE shows no residual VSD! They closed it all and left a small PFO. He came up to the ICU with a hat on that is actually shoe cover-it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!

Nawwaf with a shoe cover for his hat since his head is so small

Dr. Rania checking Nawwaf in from the OR to the ICU

As we were getting Nawwaf settled in, OR getting ready to start 2nd case. Yousif is the 5 yr old with moderate VSD with aneurysmal tissue closure and mild -moderate TR. Repair looked good and Dr. T. Was able to close the defect primarily without patch material.

 Yousif after a successful surgery

Then we had some last day picture fun!! Lots of visitors coming by bringing gifts for the children and us!

 Head ICU nurse sporting his “Riley” tatoo
Katy (Chain of Hope), Riad, Sheila and Alex

  Nawwaf and his mother

Nawwaf was extubated this afternoon and within hours took his first bottle by his mother -30 ml -in 5 minutes ! Double the Amount he has ever taken before and in minutes compared to the hour it took him to eat before

Laith out socializing with the nursesThe Riley, and Al-Khalidi teams -one big family! 

The entire gang at Jbara 

Day 3, VTT Amman. September 20,2016

Beautiful morning in Amman…we headed to the hospital early as we are giving another lecture to the hospital Staff. It is Election Day in Amman and a holiday so there are less staff present today. Dr . Riad Lufti , one of pediatric intensivists from Riley, presented the lecture this morning on Post-operative management on pediatric heart surgery patients. 

  Dr. Lufti giving his lecture 

We then did quick rounds on our 4 patients from the past 2 days.           

Tayem looks great this morning, his lines are out, chest tune will come out today, he has been up walking, eating and will be transferred to regular floor today.   Maryam also looks good today, her X-ray shows a little extra fluid so she will get lasix this morning and lines will come out. She will also be transferred to floor today.                                                               The  boys in the next room, Mujahed and Basel both off oxygen this morning, each has saturations 99-100% and look fantastic ! So excited to see these boys smiling this morning, drinking and pink!!! They will both get their lines removed and get out of bed and likely one more day in the ICU. 

Tayem looking good this morning

Maryam resting comfortably this morning (with her new Barbie from Sheila) 

Sheila, Maryam and Dr. Riad 

Mujahed with thumbs up and smile this morning

Roommates Basel and Mujahed

Basel and his mother 

Amin is the first patient for this morning. His pre-op TEE (echo) confirmed the sinus venous ASD (hole in upper chamber near the superior vena cava), partial anomalous pulmonary veins and the small VSD.  His surgery went well and he was back in the ICU by 12:30.

Amin shortly after extubation and looking good 

The second case is Shadi with pulmonary hypertension and a large VSD. We checked his X-ray this morning and looked somewhat improved after receiving lasix overnight. He had no further fevers and coughing less overnight-so we decided to proceed with his VSD repair.
Shodi and his father before he goes to sleep for his surgery 

 Sadly Shodi has very significant tooth decay because of poor dental hygiene and no access to dental care

A pediatric congenital heart surgeon , Dr. Mohammed Ghanmah, originally from Jordan and who trained in th US (Emory) and now works in Jeddah, Saudia Arabia come to Jordan today to observe Dr.T. during our surgeries , so now he finally has a real surgical assistant! 

Surgery went well, Shadi went to the ICU and could be a little more tenuous than our other patients with VSDs. He has pulmonary hypertension and so we have to be extra cautious with managing the ventilator and may need nitric oxide, which is a medical therapy that is new and now available in Jordan over the last year. His father is so grateful for the care he has received and originally thought he had a 90% chance of survival. They fled Syria and spent 5 months surviving in the desert in Jordan before going to the refugee camp. His mother -who is pregnant and due to deliver in 3 days, was not allowed to accompany him to Amman  for his heart surgery, so he is only with his father. Heartbreaking that his father may miss the birth of his new baby while staying with Shadi here at the hospital, and also that his mother cannot go to a hospital and must deliver her new baby in the camp-unless there are problems or complications

 

The anesthesia team ! Dr. Rania, her cousin John (from U.S.) who cane to shadow us rhis week and wants to do pre-med, Dr. Sami

While doing pre-op for the patients tomorrow , we found that Tayem was roommates with one of them. He had about 15 family members in his room, including all kinds of Young cousins and certainly looked like he was back to himself , let alone just had heart surgery 2 days ago! 

 Where’s Tayem???!!! …(hint he’s the one in middle white jacket..with his sister, cousins, Sheila and Dr. Riad)

Tayem’s roommate is our 2nd case tomorrow. Marsell Ra’afat Eishoa’ is a 2 yr old from Iraq with his mother with a large VSD and RV muscle bundle. He was absolutely loving being a part of the cousin party with Tayem’s family!!!
  Marsell and his mother (look at those curls!!)

Marsell hanging out among Tayem’s cousins 

Ourbut first patient for tomorrow is 7 month old Laith Zaid Abu Khaddour from Syria, here with his mother. He has had some heart failure symptoms and some pulmonary hypertension , although not as long as Shadi has.

Cute baby Laith

We had many visitors to the OR today observing surgery, Katy from Chain of Hope as well as a few Rotarians . Usama from Rotaty and his daughter Sara, Rima from Rotary, came and visited the children today and Claude and his sister Kareena , friends of Chain of Hope , helped translate with Amin’s family and brought the team delicious Arabic food -so thoughtful and want to thank all our visitors today for Their support both for the team members but especially for the patients!We ended a successful day with a beautiful dinner hosted at the home of Na’el and Ruba.  We truly appreciate all their kindness, hospitality, and amazing effort leading the GOLA organization. Katie (chain of Hope), Na’el (president of GOLA) and his wife Ruba, Dr. Rania 

Day 2 VTT Amman. September 19,2016

We started of the morning with a lecture series that we are giving this week as part of our VTT mission. I started by giving a lecture to the hospital staff, nurses and physicians on pre-operative evaluation and risk assessment in patients with congenital heart disease. The auditorium was full so I was thrilled to speak to a large audience.

We checked in quickly on Tayem and Maryam, both who did great overnight and will likely spend only one more day in the ICU.

Maryam looking good sitting up in bed today  

Mujahed was ready to go this morning as the first case. He was accompanied down to the OR by 4 of his friends and his father-what a great send off for him !

 Mujahed’s smiling before surgery 
Mujahed’s friends sending him off to OR

Mujahed’s surgery went very well-we were able to remove his old ASD patch and position it in a different location so that the IVC is draining to the correct atrium-and the blue blood is no longer mixing! His saturations before surgery  were 80% and are now 99%!!! 

Mujahed looking pale after surgery but can already tell he’s pink!!  Monitor shows  oxygen levels of 99%!!

Basel went to the OR following Mujahed-new scrub assistant for Dr. T this afternoon –Dr. Rania. During his surgery, we did not find a membrane above the tricuspid valve, but an abnormal valve leaflet and a small VSD underneath the valve. The ASD and VSD were both closed , and then Dr. T. worked on fixing and repairing the tricuspid valve. The TEE we performed after the case looked good, minimal leakage of the valve, but still concerned as to why he was so symptomatic with fatigue and cyanosis.

  Basel’s extended family after surgery with Dr. T, Dr. Riad and Dr.Anne. (i got to hold his cute sister!)

Katy, from Chain of Hope in London, who arrived late last night, was able to get more history from Basel’s parents. They are from Syria and had fled and are now living in a refugee camp in Jordan. Because of their situation, dad is allowed to travel to Jordan back and forth, but mom and the children must stay in camp and are not allowed to leave, nor is their father able to come in. They have to see one another through a fence. Only because of the nature of Basel needing heart surgery,  were they allowed to leave and come to Amman. The family was so grateful to even be in this country and have the opportunity to have life saving surgery for their child.

 Sheila with Basel after surgery -all the poor guy wanted was tube out and some water !

Spent the early evening trying to plan for the cases tomorrow. Likely the first patient of the day will be Amin Sa’ed Haqqi., a 3-1/2 yrs. from Fallujah, Iraq. He was found this week to have a Sinus venous ASD, and a small VSD. He was added to the mission trip just days ago. He is accompanied by both his parents and is a very active little boy-hard time sitting still. Actually we had to track him down in the cafeteria because we kept missing him in his room!

 Amin outside the cafeteria with his parents 

The second case tomorrow may be a very cute 2 yr old boy named Shadi Ahmad Al Ali from Illeppo, Syria. He has a large paramembranous VSD, PHTN;but had  fever over the weekend and a cough and was admitted and placed on antibiotics. We are treating him tonight with diuretics and nebulizers and reevaluate him tomorrow to see if he is ready.

 Shadi and his father 

Dr. Riad talking about surgery to Shadi and his father 

The evening concluded with a Rotary Amman club dinner with special lectures given about the Gift of Life Amman program and district involvement, the Gift of Life Rotary International program , given by Rob Raylman , executive director who made a special trip just for the occasion, and our own Dr.Mark Turrentine, talking about th origin of the Indy-Amman program, support from our local Rotary Greenfield club, the partnership with other organizations like Chain of Hope and the global grant and VTT mission focus for 12 and what this grant will allow us to do be able to make more trips and operate on at least 50 children this year. It was a wonderful way to watch all the collaboration that is going on worldwide come together worldwide for one common goal-saving children with congenital heart disease who otherwise have no access to life

Rob Raylman, executive director of Gift of Life International, presenting about worldwide programs 

Mark talking about our program and involvement with GOL Amman and Indianapolis, as well as partnership with Chain of Hope.

Mark and Rob are given awards for their involvement in the programs and saving lives.

Alex, Dr. Sami (anesthesia), Rania, and Ruba enjoying the meeting 

Kal and Riad snuck out for kenafe after the meeting ! 

Day 1 VTT trip Amman September 18,2016

After  arriving safely in Amman last evening , we had a good night sleep and got to hospital early to do pre-op echocardiograms on our 2 patients for our first day.   Our Riley VTT team and Dr Kal and Na’el from GOLA

Our first patient for the day is a 6 year old Jordanian boy named Tayem (pronounced Time) Sameer Hisham Al Halbi with a VSD and some leakage of his aortic valve.

  
In pre-op area he gave us the thumbs up sign and went quietly back to OR with a smile on his face accompanied by his mother. His surgery went very well, Dt . Turrentine was able to close his VSD primarily without having to use a patch. His post-operative echo (TEE) only showed trivial leakage of the aortic valve and no residual VSD! Total time on the bypass machine was 25 minutes !!

This is Alex, our perfusionist’s, first trip to Amman and he got acclimated to the bypass system here in no time. Like he never left home!  Alex settling in the OR 

Tayem returned to the ICU so Dr. Riad and Sheila had their first patient to care for. He was extubated within an hour from surgery .  The ICU team here will work collaboratively with our team members and best practices and management and prevention of infection risks will be emphasized this week.

 Dr. Riad and Sheila in the ICU with Tayem

The second patient for the day is Maryam Sami Fahmi Abdellah, a 6 year old Egyptian girl with Down syndrome.  She has a very large ASD secundum and mild mitral valve leakage .  Maryam posing after her pre-op echo

She went to the OR and we successfully closed her very large (~2.1 cm) ASD. We finished with her repair about 3:00 pm!! 2 pump cases done by 3:00 is a remarkable accomplishment and thanks in part to how efficiently the anesthesiologists work here. Dr. Turrentine and his “assistant” 

Dr. Rania assisting with anesthesiologists during Maryam’s surgery 

After getting both of our patients from today settled into the ICU and doing well, we discussed our next 2 patients for tomorrow .

The first patient  a 13 year old boy from Jordan Mujahed Muhammad Abu Hammoudeh.who has already had an ASD previously closed. However, he has continued to remain cyanotic and blue, so further investigation showed that his IVC drains to his left atrium (supposed to drain to right atrium -which means blue blood going back to pink side of his heart) and also 2 pulmonary veins drain to the right atrium-and they should drain to the left! His mother told us he can hardly walk 2 flights of stairs without becoming fatigued and short of breath. Very unusual case-but hopefully we should be able to make this very sweet boy pink again soon !! 

The 2nd patient for tomorrow is a nice 10 year boy from Syria named Basel Ahmad Al Husseinis. He has an unusual finding of a membrane over his tricuspid valve (we usually see them over the mitral valve) and causing high right sided pressures and the cyanotic blood to cross across small ASD and cause him also to be very blue . We will do a pre-operative TEE in the OR tomorrow to confirm these findings since this also is unusual -but I’m excited at the prospect of helping two adorable boys become pink by tomorrow and likely feel much better and have more energy!

 Majuhad and his brother Dr. T and Dr. Riad discussing surgery with Basel and his mother

We ended the evening with a lovely dinner with our Rotarian hosts Na’el and Ruba, Farres Shaddad (previous GOLA member on past trips ) and Gift of Life International executive director Rob Raylman, who flew into town tonight for Rotary meeting tomorrow night ! It was a wonderful conclusion of the first successful day to be amongst friends !Sheila, Anne amd Ruba

 Rob Raylman, Na’el and Dr T

VTT/GOL mission trip , Amman Jordan – September 17-23,2016

Follow our blog as we depart on our VTT Rotary mission trip this week to Amman , Jordan. This will be our team’s 17th mission trip and again we are partnering with Gift of Life (supported by both our own Greenfield, Indiana Rotary club and Gift of Life Amman club).

Team members on this weeks trip from

Riley Hospital in Indianapolis are:

Dr. Mark Turrentine

Dr. Rania Abbasi

Dr. Riad Lufti 

Dr. Anne Farrell

Sheila Rocchio, RN

Alex Bezruczko , perfusionist