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A Total Repair for Bruska

March 17, 2009 by ruth · Leave a Comment 

Little Bruska successfully has a full heart repair yesterday. She was the child that we tried to raise money for around Christmas. Sounds like she doing well after her surgery.

When the surgeon did his final check before surgery he said that he was optimistic about Bruska’s surgery being successful since she was able to stabilize after yesterday’s severe cyanotic spell. He added he had never seen a child’s oxygen level drop that low before and the child survive.

Around 1 pm the doctors from Bruska’s surgical team began to appear. Each of them said the surgery was finishing and had gone well, but were not ready to elaborate. When the surgeon came to us, he shared that Bruska had a good surgery with no events during the operation, and it was a total repair. He was full of encouragement that she would be incredibly better than she had been in the previous days, although mentioned again that she had arrived with neurological damage before surgery.

         

Taban Recovering well

March 1, 2009 by ruth · Leave a Comment 

Taban is back in Kurdistan after having her life saving surgery in Turkey. She’s recovering well at a relatives home in the city where we live. She’s from  small village about a hour away so the doctor asked if she would stay here in the city for a few weeks so that we, along with the local peadiatric cardiologist can monitor her progress. Both Taban and her mom said that they had a wonderful time in Turkey, their experience was “perfect and could not have been better”.

Taban is 13 years old and has not been attending school for the past couple of years so we’re trying, along with our partner organisation here to encourage her to start going to school again.

We’re going again to visit her this afternoon in the home of her relatives. Here’s a picture of Taban recovering in hospital after her surgery.

         

Taban Comes Through Her Surgery!

February 16, 2009 by ruth · Leave a Comment 

Yesterday at 0900 Taban underwent a 3 hour surgery to close the hole in her heart! Our staff in Turkey emailed last night to say that the surgery went well. We called her family to let them know and they sounded so excited! We’ll update you when we hear more!

You can follow Taban’s progress on Twitter or via RSS here.

         

Taban is in Turkey!

February 14, 2009 by ruth · Leave a Comment 

Yesterday afternoon we had one final meeting with the families before sending them off to Turkey very early this morning. Scott and Abby are travelling with them and we just heard from Scott that they are on the bus on the way to hospital. More to come later!

         

Roshna to leave next week

February 11, 2009 by ruth · Leave a Comment 

Today I had the privillege of visiting Roshna in her home. Roshna is a sweet 16 year old girl. She has three older brothers who care deeply for her and a sister that she’s very close too. Even though her sister is a couple of years younger they’re in the same grade at school as Roshna has ben held back beause of her heart problem. They love being able to go to school together!

Roshna’s condition is very serious so she will have to undergo some tests so that the doctor will know how to proceed. Hopefully the tests will go well and she will be able to have surgery and come back with a healthy heart.

I’ll keep you updated in her progress over the next few weeks.

         

Meet Taban

February 10, 2009 by ruth · Leave a Comment 

Two days ago Erin & I made a trip about an hour out of the city to visit Taban in her village. Taban is 13 years old, she’s the youngest of 8 siblings! Taban’s a sweet but shy girl. Her family live on a small wheat farm. When you walk out of the back of their house all you see are fields all around, very different from the city where we are living. Taban helped her older sister and her mom serve us drinks. We ended up having lunch with them too as they said that they couldn’t let us leave without feeding us! Her family can hardly believe that the time has finally come for her to have her heart surgery. She said that she’s not afraid and is looking forward to having a good heart.

Taban leaves along with 3 other kids on Sunday morning - Hunyar, Ranu and Ahmed. Taban and her mom, who will accompany her, haven’t spent much time out of their small village so I think that seeing the sites of Istanbul could be quick a shock for them! I’ll blog again soon to keep you updated on her progress.

         

Arya

April 16, 2008 by ruth · Leave a Comment 

Last week Kanar (my translator) and I visited Arya and his family in their home. We had a wonderful time with them! Arya is doing amazing - he’s a two and a half year old boy with Down’s Syndrome. He had a hole in his heart repaired plus an extra thumb removed and arrived back in Kurdistan a few weeks ago. Ayra has one of the the biggest smiles I’ve ever seen and he’s so sweet! His family are over the moon with how he is progressing. He’s even been able to learn how to walk in these past two months since having his heart fixed! Before he often had pneumonia and just not enough energy to motivate him to learn how to walk. His family are so thankful for the way which we have been able to help them. We’ve been invited to their home today for lunch as a way for them to show their gratitude to us. I’ll let you know how that goes and hopefully I can post some pics too! 

         

Baveel

April 16, 2008 by ruth · 1 Comment 

 Two weeks ago Baveel came to visit us at the office. We lost electricity just before he arrived so understandably he wasn’t’ able to make the climb to our office on the 6th floor so we just met outside in the car. He’s recovering reasonably well from his surgery and looks super cool with his new hair style which he had done in Israel! On the down side, he isn’t eating well and is quite underweight which is hindering him from reaching his full potential. He also needs to start building up his exercise tolerance; he had been spending the majority of his time indoors playing computer games. I explained the importance of eating well and being more active and gave him some ideas as to how to work on these things. I’m hoping that when we see him again next week that he will have his appetite back and that he’ll be playing less computer games and instead be playing much more outdoors with his friends. If you’re inclined towards prayer, lift up one for Baveel as he continues to recover.

  

         

Trip to see Aras in Halabja

March 25, 2008 by ruth · 2 Comments 

Last week I made my first visit to one of ‘our kids’ - Aras, the start of what I hope to spend much time doing here as ‘Director of Rehabilitation & Family Relations’ for BSSL.  

Aras was the first kid that was mostly funded for his surgery through BSSL . When we arrived in his neighborhood we first spotted him out playing on the street with his friends - running around, laughing, having fun! It was my first time to meet him and I definitely would not have suspected that he had been through so much in the past few months!  

I had a wonderful time with Aras and his family. They thanked us over and over again for all that we had done to help Aras. His mom had put together an extensive photo album telling Aras’s story during his time in Israel. It was fun having Aras talk me through all the photos from him lying on his bed immediately following surgery through all the various stages of recovery. He’s a real sweet kid!  

Thank you for making it possible for kids like Aras to have the life saving operations that they need!  Arya and Rebar just returned on Saturday so I’m also hoping to be able to visit them soon. This week I’ll also be visiting Baveel so check in again soon to see an update on how he’s doing.  

         

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