Vary’s Last Day in the Hospital – Leaving for Iraq Tomorrow!
November 16, 2009 by Joshua · 9 Comments

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.
| 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. Follow Joshua on Twitter: @JoshGigs. |
Uneventful Days in a Hospital After Heart Surgery are the Best Kind
November 11, 2009 by awara · 468 Comments

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.
| 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 · 1 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. Follow Jeremy on Twitter: @JCourt. |
Vary Heads In To Surgery
November 9, 2009 by Joshua · 1 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.
| 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. Follow Joshua on Twitter: @JoshGigs. |
Vary’s Surgery Will Be More Complicated Than We Initially Thought
November 9, 2009 by Joshua · 401 Comments

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.
| 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. Follow Joshua on Twitter: @JoshGigs. |
Vary Has Had A Difficult Time But Surgery is Tomorrow
November 8, 2009 by Jeremy · 9 Comments





Vary has spent more time crying than any other little girl we’ve ever seen. She really uncomfortable and misses her daddy quite a bit… But she’s one step closer to getting back to Iraq to see him now that her surgery has been scheduled for tomorrow morning.
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. Follow Jeremy on Twitter: @JCourt. |
The Plane, the Airport, the Bus: A Photographic Peek at Our Journey with Three Iraqi Kids
November 4, 2009 by Joshua · 1 Comment

Vary is two years old and very scared of this new place. She is old enough to recognize doctors as doctors….and given her heart condition, has come to fear them.


This little nine year old, Mohammad, has been great. Very calm, very respectful….I even had him laughing last night as he was getting his EKG.

Honya is a very sick nine month old girl. We are so nervous for her…..she’s the riskiest girl we’re sending.





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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. Follow Joshua on Twitter: @JoshGigs. |
Meet Vary (Twitter: @varybahman)
November 3, 2009 by Jeremy · 4 Comments

Vary is a spunky little two year old who loves stuffed animals. You wouldn’t know it by looking at her that her heart is failing, but she is actually an urgent case. We are hopeful that her surgery will set her back on track for a happy, healthy life running and playing with her friends. Her mom says she can go anywhere as long as “blankie” can go too!
On November 3rd Vary and blankie (and mom) take off for Istanbul for surgery at the Anadolu Medical Center.
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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*In accordance with PLC’s desire to lend a hand-up by avoiding strict hand-outs (when possible), Vary’s family has paid $10,000 towards PLC’s highly-discounted surgery prices. |
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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. Follow Jeremy on Twitter: @JCourt. |






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