Amman Mission #36 Day 5

It’s hard to believe that we’ve already wrapped up a week of surgeries! 13 hearts mended, 10 open-heart surgeries, multiple caths, tons of echos, and many lives forever changed.

The day started off rounding on our ICU patients

Dr. T and Ahmad. Ahmad got his chest tube removed and was transferred to the floor today! He was pretty depressed in the ICU and perked up quite a bit once he was transferred to the floor

Our sedation team for our TEE today

Mohammed and Farah. She got her chest tube out went to the floor today! She is excited to get home to be with her big sister again

Ghadeer had a great night and is doing well! She spent a lot of the day snoozin’

The ICU team with Ghadeer

Masah getting her echo done today! She should get transferred to the floor on Friday. Today we removed her CVL, arterial line, and oxygen and she’s doing GREAT! She is such a chill baby.

Roaya prepping the bypass machine for our two cases today

Peyton and Becca with Farah and her mother

Dr. Yabrodi and the infamous Masah

Murad is much happier now that his chest tube is out! All he cares about is eating. Floor tomorrow!

Mohammed is loving being on the floor! Should go home soon 🙂

Roaya and Kelly with Masah

The most perfect Ghadeer

Masah was a fan favorite

Our first patient of the day was Ruqia Gul Bahar of Pakistan 🇵🇰 Ruqia has what is called aortic stenosis — a narrowing of the valve in the large artery that sends blood from the heart to the rest of the body. Today, Dr. Turrentine sus a subaortic membrane resection, as well as closed a small hole in the bottom two chambers of her heart.

Kelly and Dr. T hard at work on our first case of the day

The best OR team around!

This repair will make it possible for Ruqia to run and play like a normal kid again. Her heart will not have to work so hard to send blood to the rest of the body.

Heather doing Ruqia’s hair

Extubated a few hours later and doing great! ❤️

Our second and final case was sweet Malak Ahmad Al Dali Mousa of Syria 🇸🇾. Malak is 9 years old and had a severe coarctation of the aorta. Dr. Turrentine fixed that today in the OR! Malak’s parents were saying she already looked so much better, even just 1 hour after being out of surgery. She was previously not able to walk more than a couple of yards without becoming winded. We are so excited to see her active with her repaired heart!

Malak and Heather!

Back from surgery! Came back extubated and doing amazing. The coarctation in her aorta was SO extremely small. No wonder she hasn’t felt a normal kid ever!

Heather was on hair patrol today and got both of our girls looking so good!

Malak and Heather have a very special bond ❤️

It’s hard to believe our surgical week is over. This mission is so very humbling every. single. trip. Time and time again, we are reminded – in more ways than one – how fortunate we really are in our own little bubble in the US. If you need a change of perspective, this is a sure way to get it.

We have been blessed with the skill to help these children with cardiac defects, but we would not be able to do what we do without the donors that make this trip possible. From Indiana, to the UK, to Jordan— we have donors near and far who make it possible for our team to give these children a second shot at life.

Our partners GOLA and Chain of Hope UK are veracious advocates for these children and make sure we are well taken care of when we are in Amman.

Between the Josh Linblom Foundation, the Rotary Club of Greenfield, and the Grand Hyatt Amman, everything from our food, our lodging, and our flights were smooth sailing. Without their help and generosity, none of this would have been possible.

We’ll be back at the hospital tomorrow morning to check on the patients before spending a little bit of time together as a team before we head back to the US.

This week went by too quickly!! Can we just add on another?!