Baroof’s Surgery was a Total Success; Huge Blessing for a Child His Age!
March 1, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
When Dr. Sertaç Çiçek and Dr. Ahmet Arsalan saw Baroof this morning in surgery they found a huge fusion between his aorta and pulmonary artery, effectively creating a hole where there should not be one and allowing dangerous blood flow between that which should be oxygenated and that which should not.
In his entire career, Dr. Çiçek estimates that he’s probably only seen and operated on this type of case less than 20 times (compared to many other surgeries that he’s performed hundreds and hundreds of times). But of the twenty or fewer times that he’s performed a surgery similar to Baroof’s, few if any have been Baroof’s age at 12 years old because usually children with AP windows are inoperable by this age, after years of the body trying to compensate for its deficiencies.
As a result of his condition, Baroof is a few years behind in school – but it’s always a joy to see families here who continue to push their children to excel even in the face of adversity. We hope the impact of this surgery will be the removal any final barriers and that he will excel in his school work.
But Baroof’s surgery went well and after the stress of not knowing whether or not he would be operable at all, his mother – and all of us – are breathing a huge sigh of relief and thanks to GOD for another successful surgery.
As always, however, we have tempered celebration until we see how Baroof’s body holds up post-operatively in ICU. He is intubated in ICU and the next few days will be critical. More to come…
With thanks and joy!
Follow Baroof on Twitter: @BaroofAbdul. Subscribe to Baroof’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Baroof’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. |
Family Followthrough in Iraq: A Day of Post-operative Testing on Former Heart Surgery Recipients
February 22, 2010 by Jeremy · 2 Comments
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. Follow Jeremy on Twitter: @JCourt. |
OUR CORE VALUES: Long Term, Local Solutions
February 15, 2010 by Jeremy · 1 Comment
Dr. Aso Faek in his small clinic in northern Iraq where he sees hundreds of kids each month suffering from congenital heart disease. Photo: Matt Addington
Dr. Aso Faeq is a visionary and one of my personal heroes. He is certainly one of the foremost long term, local solutions to runaway congenital heart disease as it faces the children and families of Iraq today. A shoemaker named, Aram, is another; as is a radio station director named Rawand; an information technologies guru at the Ministry of Councils who recently moved back from Dubai; a local television host and newspaper editor back from London; and a local women’s basketball coach.
Foreigners like us can be especially susceptible to thinking of ourselves as heroes. We are not heroes. We are part-time servants; we’re itinerate and our expiration date may be fast approaching. We will always be foreigners. Our kids have foreign names, and the pajamas we wear inside our house when no one else is looking bely the fact that – whatever we may look like on the street – we come from outside.
Luckily, the kids of Iraq are not left to outsiders to solve their problems. There are a slew of long term, local solutions to these local problems developing throughout Iraq every day. Many of these solutions are taking place tangential to us and we are riding along in their stream. But we do our best to ensure that all of our programs are geared toward empowerment so that Arab, Kurdish, and other minority Iraqis truly begin to own the vision for a better, more giving, more unified and agile response community.
A Kurdish shoemaker supplies us with a powerful symbol of grassroots action. Photo: Matt Addington
Our flagship program is called Buy Shoes. Save Lives. – based on a commerce model of selling fabulously produced local footwear to foreign markets. Through this program we consistently accomplish a number of things:
- * invest foreign and domestic capital into the local economy and provide jobs
- * use profit to fund heart surgeries for Iraqi kids
- * upgrade local production and management skills through emphasis on quality controls, inventory management, and by reducing supply chain inefficiencies
It sounds a little boring until you start looking at it through the eyes of a guy like Aram Majid, who puts food on his family’s table every night and hopes to one day send his daughters abroad for education because of the shoes he makes and the management skills he’s learning. Or look at it through the eyes of Kadeeja Mahdi, whose family paid for their portion of her surgery because of the shoes they’ve sold locally and through our Buy Shoes. Save Lives. program.
Lawen Azad - a local media maven - moonlights to organize a local-language Public Service Announcement about kids in Iraq suffering from congenital heart disease. Photo: Matt Addington.
The “long termness” of this solution does not lie primarily in the fact that these shoes have been produced by hand for the last 3,000 years. In fact, that trade is dying off in spades as the country modernizes. The take away from our commercial efforts in Iraq has more to do with shaping a culture of compassion; of teaching the benefit of doing business to do good for others outside of one’s immediate family network, even a stranger. And because we believe that a “compassion” that seeks to keep the peace but fails to work for the good of the other is no compassion at all, those who participate in our program learn the value of strict quality control measures, standardization, waste reduction, and innovation – and those are take-aways that they can readily apply to any industry, family discussion, or government office.
And because we’ve sought to make this shoe the centerpiece for our grassroots action throughout the world, it seems we’ve made it a little bit easier for many to see more clearly the simplicity of a single act to change the neighborhood or world around them. So we increasingly meet Kurds in London running for a child in Iraq; or a radio station putting on a campaign to save a life; or college students deciding that they’ve had enough waiting on the government for more handouts. Grassroots action in on the rise, and that is one of the most long-term, local solutions of all!
Dr. Aso is currently learning intervention - the ability to patch holes and perform other corrective measures without invasive (dangerous) surgery.
But all the money and good intentions in the world will mean nothing for the thousands of children in Iraq waiting in line for life-saving heart surgery without the local skill to cut into a child in hopes of patching a hole, fixing a valve, decreasing dangerous pressure, or “rearranging the pipes.” Thankfully, due to the similar vision of groups in Italy, Jordan, and the Anadolu Medical Center in Istanbul, Turkey, there are men like Dr. Aso Faek who are increasingly ready to intervene on behalf of a child and be the local solution to their problem for years and years to come.
And one of the most exciting things about Dr. Aso is that nearly every time we go into his office he is training someone else, passing on the knowledge, preparing the next generation. When we walk through the halls mothers surround him for a chance to have their baby seen. If Bono himself were to walk the halls beside us he would be invisible. Dr. Aso is the hero here.
People like us just serve in the shadows.
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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. |
Preemptive Love on Rojêkî Nêw Television Talk Show (Live)
February 9, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
Our Regional Development Office for northern Iraq – Awara Hassan Mama – speaks to Rojêkî Nêw about our work on behalf of Kurdish and Arab children in Iraq in need of life-saving heart surgery outside the country.
(Audio is in Soranî Kurdish)
Courtesy KurdSat
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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. |
OUR CORE VALUES: Multi-Dimensional Reconciliation
February 8, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
Photo: Matt Addington
Call it settling accounts, setting to rights, or the restoration of friendly relations – reconciliation is why we do what we do.
There are thousands of children in Iraq who are born with hearts “at odds” with the good intentions of GOD when He created the world. We want to set that physical situation to rights; to reconcile what is with what should be.
But a healed heart is an occasion for only a tempered celebration if your family is living in the middle of civil conflict between ethnic neighbors or regional superpowers. Sure, much of this strife comes from global issues that are beyond our direct reach. But a few days on the ground in Arab Iraq, Kurdish Iraq, Turkey, etc makes it clear that these “global issues” are exacerbated by our closely held opinions about “the other.”
Photo: Matt Addington
So we work to unravel the effects of evil that were wrought by Saddam Hussein’s genocidal campaigns, by years of sectarian conflict between Sunni and Shi’i Muslims, and by ethnic struggles.
For example, Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen are in a political (and possibly cultural) struggle over the historic city of Kirkuk – each laying some sort of ancient claim to the city; each group (generally) vilifying the other. On his Restorative Justice blog, Dr. Howard Zehr talks about our “temptation to emphasize ‘otherness’,” whether it be through photography, storytelling, or our administration of justice. At the Preemptive Love Coalition, we do not deny “otherness” when working between ethnic and tribal prejudices or religious worldview differences. But we try not to make “otherness” our starting point.
Communication guru Joseph Grenny talks about the important role that “storytelling” plays in our emotions and actions. According to Grenny, (1) we make an observation (e.g., Saddam Hussein was an Arab with largely Arab soldiers that attacked our city) and (2) immediately start telling ourselves a story (e.g., therefore all Arabs in Iraq want “our” land and are evil and would kill us if they had the chance) which (3) leads to strong emotions (like fear and hate), thereby (4) triggering fight/flight instincts inside us such as protectionist policies or aggressive police (or vigilante) action. The fork in the road is that first story we tell ourselves when faced with an observable fact.
Photo: Ben Hodson
Torture used by Saddam’s Baath Party in the “Red Security” building leaves an easy “observable fact” as the basis of an errant Kurdish story against all Arabs.
You can see how this plays out closer to home, as well. Observable fact: Men who wrapped themselves in Islam attacked America on September 11, 2001. But the stories that have flowed from that fact have been varied. And the emotions that arise from those stories have been serious and sincere. And over the past decade the actions that have come out of those various emotions have changed the course of world politics, international relations, and daily life for millions.
So when you donate, host an event, or buy a tshirt or pair of shoes, you are engaged in something bigger than the shuffling of money from one place to another to save a child’s life. We give people over “here” a tangible opportunity to save a life over “there” and to see “those” people as exactly that: people. Humans. Sons and daughters. We are all more than the images we receive from the professional media. It’s not “us” helping “them” get over “their” problems. It’s “us” becoming reconciled with “us”.
And in case you are wondering… Yes, we are just naive enough to believe that when we start seeing each less as other and more as brother these “global issues” might start to change too. And if they don’t… well, we are still committed to making change in the neighborhoods where we live and work; to be people of peace – whether anyone joins us on the journey or not.
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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. |
Heran Has Infection Around Her Heart 9 Months After Surgery
February 5, 2010 by Ruth · 1 Comment
Heran had surgery in May 2009 – the first of two surgeries she’ll need to be considered completely healed. Heran is currently sick with an infection in her heart and Dr. Aso, our local pediatric cardiologist in Iraq, has recommended that she stay in hospital for the course of her antibiotic treatment so that she can be closely monitored.
She was disappointed that she doesn’t have a nice hospital room with her own personal TV like she had during her at Anadolu Medical in Turkey. There aren’t any TV’s at all available for her to watch here so we were pleased that we were able to lend her a mini portable DVD player for her stay as it will be 6-7 weeks which is a long time for anyone and a lifetime for a 7-year-old girl. She was very excited about it!
She’s been very brave so far with so many blood tests and having her cannula site changed every few days. I’ve been visiting her every couple of days for countless games of ‘Uno’! She loves that game!
Heran has been sick a lot these past few months, so we’re hoping that after this infection clears up she will be able to be back at school and that her immune system will become stronger. Visiting is limited to just 2 days a week here so both her and her mother are missing the rest of the family plus she’s missing school a lot too.
We’re thankful for special permission to visit her anytime. So we’ll do our best to keep you posted on her progress.
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Ruth Simpson was a Family Advocate for the Preemptive Love Coalition in Iraq (2008-2010) and a certified physio-therapist. Ruth hails from Ireland, though she's slowly losing her amazing accent amongst all the Americans. When not sharing her life with PLC's kids in Iraq, she served other constituent groups with her rehabilitative skills and compassion. |
Shwana Gains Weight; Prepares for School Midterms 7 Months Post-Op
December 20, 2009 by Jessica · 422 Comments
We visited Shwana in his village today, arriving only two hours before his mid-term test. He sat politely with us talking about football and playstation then excused himself to go study for his test. Sitting under the kitchen window for light (because his house doesn’t have electricity during the day) he and his brother studied together.
We sat in the other room talking over their chants of memorization in the background. His mother proudly explained how he has now outgrown all of his clothes that were falling off his body before his surgery just 7 months ago. Weight gain can be a great sign of health in a post-op child!
His father arrived from his job as a teacher just before lunch in time to quiz Shwana a little before he needed to leave. The entire family exuded happiness and pride in him as we ate a delicious Kurdish meal. After a very quick lunch, Shwana left and hurried to school so he wouldn’t be late for his test.
It was a great day with his family and we are excited with him that what you made happen with a single surgery in Istanbul, Turkey has led to a completely normal life for Shwana back in Iraq.
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Jessica Courtney lives and loves in Iraq as a co-founder and Family Services Director of the Preemptive Love Coalition. She is also a mother of two children and is married to PLC's Executive Director, Jeremy Courtney. When not absorbed in caring for Iraqi children and sharing life with Iraqi families, she enjoys sewing and scrapbooking. |
Fighting for Families
December 8, 2009 by Cayla · Leave a Comment
When a child is chosen for surgery, their family is adopted by a member of the PLC team. This person makes it their goal to do whatever is necessary to defend the family in this time of vulnerability. They are the family advocate.
The care offered to the family goes far beyond a healthy heart. When I visited the team in Iraq a month ago, I was able to see this care first hand on various home visits I made with PLC’s family advocates.
Here are some examples of what I saw:
- Honya went to Istanbul for surgery in November. Her advocate sat with her parents to explain what the process would be like and what to expect in the hospital.
- Heran needs a follow-up surgery but must gain weight before that’s possible. Her advocate has been visiting weekly, checking her weight and encouraging her closer to this goal.
- Taban has completely recovered from her surgery but lacks motivation in school. Her advocate met with the school board, persuaded them to let her enroll, and continues to support her education.
- Zana has also been doing well, but his mother was keeping him from school for fear he would turn up sick again. After some reassurance, she allowed him to begin his studies.
- Shwana has fully recovered and is doing great, but others in his family are still in need. His family advocate is in the process of acquiring a wheelchair for his disabled cousin and was able to give helpful exercises to his grandma who recently had a stroke.
PLC does so much more than just heart surgeries; they truly care for the Iraqi people and work to show them that they matter. I was astounded to see how much is invested in the lives of the children and their families and how big of a difference it really makes.
HELP PLC IN THEIR ADVOCACY ON BEHALF OF IDREES BY GIVING TO HIS SURGERY IN HONOR OF A FRIEND BELOW:
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Idrees is slated for surgery in January 2010. PLC will be collecting money for his life-saving surgery throughout the Thanksgiving and Christmas season. What a chance to make a profound difference in the life of a child and his family! | |||
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GIVING IN HONOR OF ANOTHER
In honor of a friend or family member, donate the amount of your choice to fund a January surgery for Idrees by entering it in the field below. PLC will send you a Christmas card about Idrees along with a Preemptive Love Coalition “Hope for the Holidays” magnet as a physical expression of your gift on behalf of another.
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Cayla Willingham is a Family Advocate in PLC's Followthrough program. When she isn't spending time with families, she enjoys cooking up amazing food, hosting friends, haggling at the bazaar, and learning Kurdish. |
Mohammad Coloring Pictures in His Room – Fit to Fly Home to Iraq Tomorrow Morning
November 9, 2009 by Jeremy · 405 Comments
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. Follow Jeremy on Twitter: @JCourt. |
Mohammad Resting in ICU After Successful Heart Surgery
November 9, 2009 by Jeremy · 17 Comments
Mohammad’s surgery was a complete success! There were no surprises and Dr. Sertaç Çiçek and his team at the Anadolu Medical Center have done it again! While his mother waiting on in worry, the doctors went about steadily doing their job.
Mohammad was extubated in ICU just a few short hours after his surgery. And though we were not allowed to take pictures, Mohammad was visited in the hospital in an unofficial State visit by one of the region’s top figures who wanted to learn more about Anadolu Medical, including their work with the Preemptive Love Coalition and kids in Iraq. These sorts of things are just part of what we mean when we work for “cooperation between communities at odds.”
Mohammad is now one step closer to getting back to school in Iraq and pursuing his big dreams!
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. Follow Jeremy on Twitter: @JCourt. |
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Matt Willingham is the PLC press secretary and writes primarily on politics, history, general updates and visual peacemaking through photography and film. |
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Jeremy Courtney is a PLC cofounder and writes primarily to emphasize our vision and values, including organizational and financial transparency. |
Preemptive Love Coalition provides lifesaving heart surgeries for Iraqi kids in pursuit of peace between communities at odds. We offer the 30,000 Iraqi children suffering from life-threatening heart defects a chance at the surgery they need to save their lives. With our world-class international surgical partners we create long-term solutions by training local Iraqi doctors and nurses so they can sustainably save lives without our help.