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WE HAVE KIDS IN SURGERY RIGHT NOW! THROUGH THESE STORIES WE'RE INVITING YOU TO BE A PART OF THE NEXT LIFESAVING SOLUTION. GET TO KNOW THESE KIDS & PLEASE GIVE WHAT YOU CAN FOR THE NEXT GROUP! |
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Baby Honya’s last day in the Hospital Before Going Home to Daddy
November 16, 2009 by Joshua · Leave a Comment
Its been no secret we think this little baby is adorable. And we know you do, too. I mean c’mon, look at this girl.
This is harder than it should be though.
We know its not the way this is supposed to be….we’re supposed to be excited about seeing her leave, going home to her family, back to normal life….but we’re going to miss seeing her each day!
Today, she is well rested and smiling a lot. Today, we are praising God for a successful surgery and the new life that has been given. In fact, today we’re grateful for our Followthrough program and the fact that we will continue to see this little girl grow up into the hope & future that has been provided for her.
And we’re grateful for you… because without you we could not have made this happen!
Follow 9-month-old Honya on Twitter: @honyamahdi. Subscribe to Honya’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Honya’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
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Joshua Gigliotti is a PLC Summer Intern ('09) turned short-term staff who spends a majority of his time with PLC taking exceptional photos of children in Iraq in an effort to humanize Iraqis and portray them as people full of dreams and hope. When his camera is not in-hand, Josh is often found in local tea houses with friends and also enjoys traversing the great outdoors. |
Vary’s Last Day in the Hospital - Leaving for Iraq Tomorrow!
November 16, 2009 by Joshua · 1 Comment
This is the happiest we’ve seen her since her arrival in Istanbul. Laughing with us, playing with us, dancing to the music playing on her room TV, she was as happy and healthy as could be hoped for.
The feeling of watching this little girl play is… well, what we work for. She is healed. She has been given new life. Her mom is at rest, no longer fearing her daughter’s heart; no longer being forced to live a cautious life because of it.
Vary has been healed, and now boards a plane with something that wasnt there when she left. Hope for the future.
Follow 2-year-old Vary on Twitter: @varybahman. Subscribe to Vary’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Vary’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
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Joshua Gigliotti is a PLC Summer Intern ('09) turned short-term staff who spends a majority of his time with PLC taking exceptional photos of children in Iraq in an effort to humanize Iraqis and portray them as people full of dreams and hope. When his camera is not in-hand, Josh is often found in local tea houses with friends and also enjoys traversing the great outdoors. |
Uneventful Days in a Hospital After Heart Surgery are the Best Kind
November 11, 2009 by awara · 1 Comment
Today was a down day… not much to report on Honya and Vary except that everything is going according to course. Because of the down day, some of us worked from the hospital while our American staffed worked from the guesthouse in Istanbul on some long-term projects for PLC.
But thanks to modern technology and the incredible access to WiFi at the Anadolu Medical Center, the staff from the guesthouse were able to “conference call” with the mothers and the two girls to check in on their well-being throughout the day!
Follow 9-month-old Honya on Twitter: @honyamahdi. Subscribe to Honya’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Honya’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
Follow 2-year-old Vary on Twitter: @varybahman. Subscribe to Vary’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Vary’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
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Awara Hassan Mama is a Regional Development Officer for the Preemptive Love Coalition in charge of creating local solutions to local problems in Iraq among his compatriots and for the sake of our constituents. Awara often travels abroad with PLC children to surgery and serves as a translator and a key cooperator between communities in conflict. |
Vary’s Surgery Was a Complete Success! Already Extubated & Resting In ICU
November 10, 2009 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
Vary’s surgery was a complicated procedure (even in heart surgery terms) but everything went according to plan. It was the best kind of uneventful.
Today Vary is resting in ICU, extubated and off the breathing machine, and breathing just fine with good oxygen saturations from the room air. These are the hardest days… the most critical. So we are still watchful, but for the first time in Vary’s life, there is now a real reason to be hopeful because of you and the work you do each day to make these sort of life-impacting surgeries happen.
Follow 2-year-old Vary on Twitter: @varybahman. Subscribe to Vary’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Vary’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
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Jeremy Courtney lives and loves in Iraq as a co-founder and Executive Director of the Preemptive Love Coalition. He's also the father of two spectacular children, and married to the lovely Jessica Courtney. When not absorbed in PLC work he can be found writing songs and singing about hope and future. |
Honya is Breathing Entirely On Her Own Just Hours After Surgery
November 10, 2009 by Joshua · 1 Comment
Baby Honya is sleeping calmly in ICU, waiting for doctors to clear her to release to her room. Her oxygen levels are great off room air and the strength of her own lungs! And her pulmonary pressure is (so far) entirely under control!
Follow 9-month-old Honya on Twitter: @honyamahdi. Subscribe to Honya’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Honya’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
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Joshua Gigliotti is a PLC Summer Intern ('09) turned short-term staff who spends a majority of his time with PLC taking exceptional photos of children in Iraq in an effort to humanize Iraqis and portray them as people full of dreams and hope. When his camera is not in-hand, Josh is often found in local tea houses with friends and also enjoys traversing the great outdoors. |
Vary Heads In To Surgery
November 9, 2009 by Joshua · Leave a Comment
Vary’s mother is excited about all the possibilities the future could hold for Vary and their family if this surgery is successful.
Not quite sure if she’s happy to be getting away from the camera or scared of all the sudden attention she is getting back people in weird hats…
One last hug… a final close cuddle before sending her child away to what could be a life-saving surgery… Still, Vary’s mom is unable to shake the reality that it could also precipitate her death.
Vary is separated from mom and taken into the operating room…
For little Vary, the road to surgery has been a difficult one. She’s lived long enough with her heart condition to know doctors when she seems them; and she has has come to fear them. Upon seeing them in her doorway, she immediately recoils and clings to her mother…a mother who must hand her only daughter into the hands of foreign doctors - whose words she cannot even remotely understand - to save her life.
Follow 2-year-old Vary on Twitter: @varybahman. Subscribe to Vary’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Vary’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
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Joshua Gigliotti is a PLC Summer Intern ('09) turned short-term staff who spends a majority of his time with PLC taking exceptional photos of children in Iraq in an effort to humanize Iraqis and portray them as people full of dreams and hope. When his camera is not in-hand, Josh is often found in local tea houses with friends and also enjoys traversing the great outdoors. |
Honya’s Surgery a Complete Success - Intubated in ICU Resting
November 9, 2009 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
Do you remember that little baby that we introduced you to a week ago that all of our monthly sponsors have been working together to help… the one for whom we made the last minute Twitter push to raise her remaining airfare?
That little girl, Honya Mahdi, just came out of a life-altering, impact-her-life-forever surgery at the hands of Dr. Sertaç Çiçek and his staff at the Anadolu Medical Center.
Honya’s surgery this morning was a 4 hour ordeal… but a complete success!
As I said in my previous post, the choice to accept her to surgery and the nerve-wracking waiting to see how she’d fare has been anything but easy.
But you told us that you were giving your money to change the lives of children that would otherwise be left behind. So here we are, one significant step closer to making good on your intentions.
We could not have done Honya’s surgery without our monthly sponsorship program. We hope those of you who have invested your time, prayers, and dollars into Honya’s family over the past few months feel extremely fulfilled today. You’ve worked together to do something remarkable. Go brag on yourself!
If you are not yet a monthly sponsor, just stop for a moment and imagine with us what 2010 would be like to go to work each day with the expressed purpose of saving the lives of a few children in Iraq. What sort of joy would that inject into the daily grind? Might it lift your head on the gloomiest of days to log on to this blog and see the real-time impact of your hard work.
You are so much more than the physical widgets and intellectual nuggets you turn out each day! You are a life-saver! At least, you can be in just two short minutes below… !
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MONTHLY SPONSORSHIP
Time is running out on thousands of Iraqi kids’ little lives. Choose this option to sponsor a child toward surgery for the amount of your choice (entered below). Your credit card will be billed each month without any additional work on your part.
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Follow 9-month-old Honya on Twitter: @honyamahdi. Subscribe to Honya’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Honya’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
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Jeremy Courtney lives and loves in Iraq as a co-founder and Executive Director of the Preemptive Love Coalition. He's also the father of two spectacular children, and married to the lovely Jessica Courtney. When not absorbed in PLC work he can be found writing songs and singing about hope and future. |
Mohammad Coloring Pictures in His Room - Fit to Fly Home to Iraq Tomorrow Morning
November 9, 2009 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
We told you in the amazing film of Mohammad’s surgery - made by PLC’s Joshua Gigliotti - about Mohammad’s mother’s tears and the weight of the burden that it is to entrust your only son to foreigners, in a foreign land, and to have your only access to life-saving services taking place in a foreign language. And though we told you that weight was lifted, there is still another weight that always remains: the weight of loneliness in having to bear all these life-and-death decisions without your spouse.
It’s not uncommon for other programs in the region to take children out of the country for months or more at a time. The logistics of scheduling surgeries with other hospitals and different policies about finances often cause Iraqi families themselves to be put in an even harder position in pursuit of life-saving solutions.
This is yet another reason why we are so grateful for all the amazing staff at the Anadolu Medical Center. They make scheduling, pricing, planning, and every other form of logistics so unbelievably easy that we cannot help but save more lives because of it. Because of them we are able to serve more of the riskiest of children, faster, and cheaper than many other programs in the region - and far better than we ever dreamed possible.
The upshot is that Mohammad is going home to his dad tomorrow. His mother is not going to be kept on this surgical sojourner any longer than was absolutely necessary. And Mohammad is one step closer to getting back to Iraq to go to school and beginning pursuing his big dreams!
Exactly one week after leaving his home country for surgery, Mohammad will be resting at home!
Follow 11-year-old Mohammad on Twitter: @mohammadstar. Subscribe to Mohammad updates via RSS HERE. Follow Mohammad’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
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Jeremy Courtney lives and loves in Iraq as a co-founder and Executive Director of the Preemptive Love Coalition. He's also the father of two spectacular children, and married to the lovely Jessica Courtney. When not absorbed in PLC work he can be found writing songs and singing about hope and future. |
Honya is Admitted to Operating Room for Surgery as Mom Tries to Stay Strong
November 9, 2009 by Jeremy · 1 Comment
When Honya first came into our office, I’ll be honest, I did not want to get involved with her or her family. She was - and remains - one of the cutest, cuddliest kids I’ve ever met. Plus I have a soft spot in my heart for little girls. But she was just so waif-like; so skinny; malnourished.
Hadn’t we just gone through something like this with Daryan Salah? I was loath to send another child to die. And yet, it seemed that turning them out at the door of our office in Iraq would actually be just that.
“Triage is the mantle of God.” That’s what our friend Jeff Smith, author of Generation BIG, says. Still, we seem to get stuck making the call on a daily basis. This is one of the reasons we have our Advisory Board and why we strive to make decisions in teams, in consultation with local and foreign cardiologists and surgeons, and with other partnering non-profits like Kurdistan Save the Children (who paid, in part, for Honya’s surgery as a part of our Local Solutions program).
Ultimately, the team decided to take Honya to surgery… and that’s exactly where she is right now. In the operating room, under the leadership of Dr. Sertaç Çiçek.
I’m just as nervous as I was the day I met her in my office. It’s her weight and the pulmonary hypertension that have me scared. These hours in surgery just drag on… the not knowing… the lack of access to updates along the way… the uncertainty about what lies ahead in the intensive care unit as nurses try to wean her off the breathing machines.
It’s a long course ahead… and we still don’t know if we made a life-saving choice. But as we’ve listened to your hearts in our donor feedback sessions, we’ve heard you say that you want us to risk it on the kids that no one else will take. We’ve heard you say that you want to be involved in helping those on the edge of hopelessness. We’ve heard you say that you want your money to give a chance to those who have no other chance…
So that’s what we’ll do. And we’ll leave the results to GOD, in whose hands are all things.
With hope,
Jeremy Courtney
Executive Director
Follow 9-month-old Honya on Twitter: @honyamahdi. Subscribe to Honya’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Honya’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
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Jeremy Courtney lives and loves in Iraq as a co-founder and Executive Director of the Preemptive Love Coalition. He's also the father of two spectacular children, and married to the lovely Jessica Courtney. When not absorbed in PLC work he can be found writing songs and singing about hope and future. |
Vary’s Surgery Will Be More Complicated Than We Initially Thought
November 9, 2009 by Joshua · Leave a Comment
The doctors at Anadolu Medical Center in Istanbul, Turkey explain how they were able to identify an additional problem that was missed by doctors in Iraq due to out-dated equipped and less experience in the field. Vary’s surgery will be far more complicated and more risky than we initially thought. The course for Vary’s surgical correction includes lowering her body temperature to 16 degrees Celsius, draining all the blood from her body, and resecting a portion of the artery dangerously close to a critical nerve that could leave Vary with neurological damage.
Just as subpar equipment and medical facilities in Iraq are stand-in substitutes for the diagnostic and therapeutic equipment that these dear people really need, so, too, do make-shift educational systems, requirements, and expectations stand-in as substitutes for standards, critical thinking, and comprehension-based testing. Because of this, Vary’s mother has to sign the documents acknowledging the risks of death and other complications with an inked thumbprint because at 23 years old, she lacks the ability to read or write.
Vary’s mother doesn’t really have much of a choice. Of course she’s scared of neurological damage, other complications, and the risk of death during surgery… then again, she’s already heard that her daughter is sentenced to death without this surgery. So we gathered, prayed, and Vary goes to surgery in just a few short hours.
Follow 2-year-old Vary on Twitter: @varybahman. Subscribe to Vary’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Vary’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
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Joshua Gigliotti is a PLC Summer Intern ('09) turned short-term staff who spends a majority of his time with PLC taking exceptional photos of children in Iraq in an effort to humanize Iraqis and portray them as people full of dreams and hope. When his camera is not in-hand, Josh is often found in local tea houses with friends and also enjoys traversing the great outdoors. |
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