By Leila Hawken | Executive Consultant and Project Leader
Progress at our new Pediatric Heart Center in Nicaragua is sure and steady, thanks to enthusiastic dedication from visiting surgical training teams and you, our Global Giving friends, who stay with us and repeat your support. Without you, where would we be? We begin by thanking you.
To bring our Global Giving friends up to date, two international teams have visited our Heart Center in Managua in recent months. In April, a team from Madrid, Spain, paid their second visit, reuniting with Head ICU Nurse Ana Rosa who had spent some training time with them in Madrid. The reunion was energizingly happy. During their week-long mission, the team engaged in complex surgeries, collaborating with the local team, whose expertise continues to strengthen. The benefit of a visiting team who shares the Spanish language with the local team is invaluable....communication is easy and more complete. The catheterization laboratory is beginning to come to life and serve the little patients, too.
And then in June, an international team which we sponsored in partnership with the International Children's Heart Fund visited the Heart Center for continued surgeries, follow-ups, and more training. That team, most of whom spoke Spanish, moved training along, and accomplished a few more than the intended ten surgeries, just because there were some urgent cases needing urgent care. Local surgeon, Alan Tellas, MD, performed surgeries during the mission, and of course, continues to provide operations between missions, along with his team.
By now, we can report that all children in the photos have returned to their homes with healthier hearts and their childhoods ahead of them.
As the Catheterization Lab grows in its use, Dr. Gerardo Mejia, our Nicaragua Program Director, reports that they are running low on "catheterization probes", single-use devices. They need one each time they use the machine. Understanding that Nicaragua is the second poorest country on our side of the world, this is where our Global Giving friends can help. Your help in any amount is needed for this important life-saving work We know you agree that no child should die for lack of access to the kind of care that is readily available to us in the developed world..
Thank you for your continuing friendship and caring.
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By Leila Hawken | Executive Consultant
By Leila Hawken | Executive Consultant
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