By Leila Hawken | Fundraising Program Leader
Progress continues at our Heart Center in Nicaragua, as Surgeons of Hope has sent surgical training missions regularly since our last report to our GlobalGiving donors. Recent missions have included a team from France in March (they have been visiting annually since 2007) and a team from Spain who brought 20 professionals along to provide surgery and training in April.
The French team leader, who has led every French mission as the head surgeon from the beginning, said, “This is exactly why I love doing what I do, sharing my knowledge, teaching them how to do this type of surgery. The team here has a lot of potential and I can’t wait to come back to Managua.
During his week there, his team operated on nine children, including a six-month old infant named Nelson, who came through a very complex procedure, and went home from the hospital 10 days later with a repaired heart. His heart was malformed at birth. To survive and thrive, he needed a procedure which had been developed in 1967 by researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. The surgery is known as a Rastelli procedure.
This story illustrates the work being done at our Heart Center in Nicaragua, thanks in huge part to the caring of our GlobalGiving donors who have supported us generously from the beginning. Your donations add up and make real progress.
In April we sent a team from the children’s hospital in Madrid, Spain who provided surgery and training to another group of little patients, all the while providing hands-on training for the medical staff at the Heart Center.
All of this progress is assisted by your donations which in turn buy supplies to augment the supplies that team members bring with them in their luggage. Bit by bit, the Heart Center is growing in its ability to self-supply, but more needs to be done. Babies need warming blankets to bring them back from the chill of surgery (infants cannot warm themselves as their bodies do not have a shivering ability), and other medicines and supplies are essential daily needs.
We appreciate you, our faithful GlobalGiving friends and supporters.
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