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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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Family Followthrough in Iraq: A Day of Post-operative Testing on Former Heart Surgery Recipients
February 22, 2010 by Jeremy · 1 Comment
Last week we were honored to have some of the excellent medical staff from the Anadolu Medical Center in Istanbul, Turkey make the trip to our office in Iraq to work with us on a few current and future initiatives. Among our agenda for the week:
The video above represents one of our agenda items for the week! In coming days we hope to post a photo narrative about the amazing alumni banquet and a story from local media about the Turkish delegation and PLC’s peacemaking agenda with them.
Don’t forget to push PLAY above to watch hope and life in motion!
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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. |
Danar Arrives Back in Iraq Safely with Daddy; Drives 2 Hours Home to Village
January 12, 2010 by Jeremy · 1 Comment
Danar arrived home in Iraq to his Daddy and older brother on Tuesday - just one week after leaving the country for life-saving heart surgery! I spent awhile talking with his father on the phone the last few days and the minutes in the airport lounge before they emerged through those doors were exciting! It’s such a joy to see a family reunited. If the tears of watching him send his child away last week were heart-wrenching, the joy of seeing them reunite with an eye toward a healthy, care-free future was enlivening and inspiring.
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Isn’t it amazing to watch life-saving in progress? We are able to do this because thousands of people like you have given $10, $25, and $50 - or whatever they could - to impact the future of kids in Iraq. |
Follow 3-year-old Danar on Twitter: @danarsami. Subscribe to Danar’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Danar’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. |
Danar is Fit to Fly Home on Tuesday; Takes with Him a Message of Peace
January 11, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
All of Danar’s follow-up echos and tests show that he is doing extremely well! He has been deemed “fit to fly” home to Iraq on Tuesday. And when he and his mom do make it home, they will take with them - forever take with them - a different-than-usual story about the Turks to the north of them and the Americans who came from the West to their country.
Life-saving heart surgery; life-changing experiences of “the other”; of the person different from me; of that kind of person. What difference a week can make!
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Isn’t it amazing to watch life-saving in progress? We are able to do this because thousands of people like you have given $10, $25, and $50 - or whatever they could - to impact the future of kids in Iraq. |
Follow 3-year-old Danar on Twitter: @danarsami. Subscribe to Danar’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Danar’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. |
Danar Discharged to His Private Room; Mom Laughs for Joy At His New Life Ahead
January 9, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
We’ve been on this journey with Danar and his family for a few months now. In fact, we know Danar because of a child named Honya we helped back in February 2009. But in all our history with this family, we’ve not seen smiles and happiness; openness, hope, and joy for the future like we saw today.
It’s hard to put this in to words. We trust that the smiles above convey the deep impact you’ve made on the future of Danar, his mom, his dad, their extended family, and the previously destroyed village in Iraq in which they live.
These smiles - and the depth of hope they convey - are one of the primary things we aim for in our work.
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Isn’t it amazing to watch life-saving in progress? We are able to do this because thousands of people like you have given $10, $25, and $50 - or whatever they could - to impact the future of kids in Iraq. |
Follow 3-year-old Danar on Twitter: @danarsami. Subscribe to Danar’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Danar’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. |
Danar Doing Well, Off Life Support in ICU
January 8, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
Danar has been doing great and his mother is extremely relieved to see him without all the tubes and machines attached. This is one of the most critical steps for any child. This is the official move away from “critical condition.” So things are looking positive for Danar!
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Part of how we are able to do this is owing to those who have committed to $25, $50, or $150 monthly sponsorships to impact the future of kids in Iraq. Could you reorganize any current spending to see more kids on here? How about becoming a monthly sponsor today? |
Follow 3-year-old Danar on Twitter: @danarsami. Subscribe to Danar’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Danar’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. |
CREATING A VALVE FROM THE SAC AROUND DANAR’S HEART
January 7, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
Unfortunately, a lot of well-meaning donations and aid end up in places that donors never intended. It is our hope that pictures like this will give you an increasingly clear understanding of what it is you are helping us accomplish in the lives of Iraqi children suffering from congenital heart disease (CHD) after decades of intra-family marriage, malnutrition in war torn villages, and chemical warfare.
For older, more developed CHD kids it is often possible to use an artificial replacement when a valve is failing. But for younger babies, toddlers, and pre-schoolers the artificial valves cannot grow with the child. Above we see Prof. Dr. Sertaç Çiçek with a piece of the pericardium (the sac around the heart) as he shapes it into a valve that ultimately stopped all the leakage for Danar, decreased the swollen size of his heart by 2-3x, and will decrease the strain on other vital organs.
So when you go to work tomorrow, you can be sure you are making a difference in the world! This is your money - indeed your hard work! - saving lives of Iraqi kids and setting them free into a hope-filled future!
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We can do this because hundreds of people every year give generously to cover the material costs of surgery to impact the future of kids in Iraq. |
Follow 3-year-old Danar on Twitter: @danarsami. Subscribe to Danar’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Danar’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. |
Doctors Decide to Take Danar Back in for 2nd Surgery to Repair Leakage in Valve
January 7, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
“A lot of hospitals would have accepted the fix as ‘good enough’, but I was unhappy with the level of leakage… besides, this is not just any hospital.”
That’s how Prof. Sertaç Çiçek started our morning today, as Hamma Dana was being prepped for surgery, letting us know that he’d consulted with his team and decided to respond to the leakage they were seeing by ultrasound in Danar’s tricuspid valve. If you recall, they had to create a new valve for him yesterday from the pericardium around his heart after a bacterial infection had “destroyed” his valve unlike anything they’d ever seen.
In the end, they were able to significantly improve upon their work yesterday and reduce the leakage to nearly nothing. Danar is back in the ICU resting, with an even greater likelihood of a healthy life. The main priority now is for him to stay strong these next few hours on life support in ICU.
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Isn’t it amazing to watch life-saving in progress? We are able to do this because thousands of people like you have given $10, $25, and $50 - or whatever they could - to impact the future of kids in Iraq. |
Follow 3-year-old Danar on Twitter: @danarsami. Subscribe to Danar’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Danar’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. |
Infection of Endocardium Destroys Danar’s Valve Unlike Anything Doctors Have Seen
January 6, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
“It’s so strange. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen.” Those were the words Prof. Sertaç Çiçek used to describe Danar’s heart condition after seeing it up-close in surgery today.
The endocarditis - or inflamation of the inner layer of the heart, called the endocardium (click here for more) - had caused Danar’s heart to be very enlarged because it was overworking itself to compensate for the valved that had been (apparently) completely destroyed by the infection.
The team used his pericardium to create a new valve, which they did successfully and are very pleased with the “minimal leakage” that remains (due to the fact that this is not a REAL heart valve but something they’ve made for him). And once inside, the doctors did not find any evidence of septal defects between the atria or the ventricles.
Danar is resting in ICU right now, in critical condition. His mom has been in to see him and hopes to stay by his side tomorrow or the next day after extubation. The surgery was the easy part. ICU is the scary time for us. Please keep on eye out for news on Danar in the next 24 hours.
Follow 3-year-old Danar on Twitter: @danarsami. Subscribe to Danar’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Danar’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. |
Light at the End of the Tunnel or….
January 6, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
Imagine your child or your three year old brother or sister was just wheeled down this hallway, in the hands of a group of strangers speaking a different language, about whom you’ve only heard terrifying stories of oppression and injustice against your people…. would you feel:
- Thankful to be receiving their help
- Distrustful or their motives
- Hopeful for your child
- Scared of their skill level
Obviously human emotions are not so simply encapsulated… but these are some of the emotions that each Kurd from Iraq (more so than the Arabs we serve) faces when placed in the humble position to receive help from the Turkish life-savers to the north of them.
We love Prof. Sertaç Çiçek’s quote: Medicine is the currency of peacemaking
And so it is for these four families this week. Danar is in surgery…. now we wait with his mother.
Follow 3-year-old Danar on Twitter: @danarsami. Subscribe to Danar’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Danar’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. |
Danar’s Echo Shows No Septal Defects; Instead Infection Eats Away Tricuspid Valve
January 6, 2010 by Jeremy · 1 Comment
Both of the holes in Danar’s heart (an ASD and a VSD) that were previously seen by two cardiologists in Iraq have apparently closed over by themselves. Still, the infection in his heart is doing severe damage to Danar’s tricuspid valve. Doctors determined today in the consult to attempt a correction of the valve.
Because of Danar’s age and weight, an artificial valve - such as the ones funded by our Heartmender Tee - is not an option. They hope to correct and reconstruct the valve with the tissue of his own pericardium.
Follow 3-year-old Danar on Twitter: @danarsami. Subscribe to Danar’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Danar’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. |
REAL-TIME UPDATES ON DANAR:
