1: What are you trying to accomplish?
2: What's your evidence that you can accomplish it?
3: How is it possible that you can provide an open heart surgery in Iraq for less than $1,000? Is that the full cost?
4: So is that the same thing as saying that my donation doesn't really make a difference? That the "up to 85%" funded locally by those inside Iraq is all that is really necessary to make this work?
5: Any other costs?
6: What is the bottleneck to more surgeries: money or skilled labor?
7: I'm skeptical of non-profits and charities because they always seem to be asking for more money. How can I be sure that Preemptive Love Coalition has "room for more funding" and that I'm not paying into a huge savings account, "Rainy Day Fund", or something similar?
8: Do you have enough volunteer surgeons available for unfunded Remedy Missions? (i.e., are there trips that you could fund if you had more money, or is there a labor bottleneck?)
9: Many heart surgeries require follow-up treatment (including additional surgeries). Do you have a way of providing these to patients?
10: How do you assess whether surgeries are completed competently and appropriately?
11: What is the rate of complications during and following surgery?
12: How do you assess whether surgeons are performing additional surgeries that they would have not had the funding or motivation to perform otherwise?
13: How do you assess whether surgeons are charging their patients for the surgeries you fund?
14: Do you follow up with the surgeons you've trained to assess whether they are correctly applying their training?
15: What information is available on the activities - and competence - of the surgeons you've trained?
16: Where do surgeons work after completing training? Do they serve poor patients?
17: How much do you spend each year on "program" expenses and how much on "overhead?"


----------

 Q: What are you trying to accomplish?

A: Train Iraqi heart surgeons and nurses so they can eradicate the backlog of tens of thousands of Iraqi children waiting in line for lifesaving heart surgery. [Back to Top]

 Q: What's your evidence that you can accomplish it?

A: Each year we continue to increase Iraq's total number of pediatric cardiac surgeries with new surgeries in Iraqi centers that would not - indeed could not - have been accomplished otherwise. Ministry of Health (MOH) officials speculate 500 surgeries were accomplished in 2009 (of which we provided 23 - 4.6% - outside the country). The addition of our 82 surgeries in FY 2010 - to the 500 baseline - for a total of 582 approximated surgeries, represents an increase created by PLC of 14% over 2009. In FY 2011 we anticipate increasing Iraq's total number of pediatric cardiac surgeries to at least 719 (or another 19% over FY 2010 directly attributable to our surgeons and our training).

Each year the local teams with which we work will become more proficient, and each year they will independently take on a larger case load than they could have the year before. None of these figures yet account for that additional output.

In March 2010 the Iraqi Ministry of Health asked us to expand our work to three additional sites. In May 2010 we began additional discussions about establishing a fellowship program in which international surgeons and nurses would take up residence in the Iraqi system to train locally for 40 weeks out of the year.

Our model does not rely strictly on volunteers because the level of need in Iraq outstrips what we could reasonably supply through volunteer labor alone. Accordingly, we set our budgets so as to actually contract the international surgical and nursing staff we need to accomplish our mission.

Sure, this increases the cost-per-mission (and thereby, cost-per-child) over early "mission" models in which volunteerism was idealized and training was not necessarily prioritized. But our contract labor + volunteerism model is inarguably the only way to create a nationwide quarterly training program and fellowships inside Iraq with international experts across approximately 6-8 surgical sites. Moreover, our model does not face the same sluggishness of learning that other surgery organizations suffer because we do not have the same rates of turnover; we have incredible consistency across our programs and missions. [Back to Top]

 Q: How is it possible that you can provide an open heart surgery in Iraq for less than $1,000? Is that the full cost?

A: The "less than $1k" numbers we routinely publish represent the amount in "program costs" we spend from our international donor money. The figure does not necessarily account for every single management, overhead, or fundraising expense.

Our total expenditures for FY 2010 were $188,919. We performed 82 surgeries during the same period for a per child total of $2,304 (though this data is a bit moot moving into 2010-11 as we abandon our very expensive "surgery exports" program(s) in Turkey, etc. and focus henceforth on more cost-effective in-country surgeries alone).

When all of our Remedy Mission partners are taken into consideration - including the Iraqi Government, medical companies that donate medicines and supplies, and local organizations - the real Remedy Mission cost to all donors is in the range of $5,400 - $7,000. Put another way, up to 85% of the total cost of a single surgical/training mission is now subsidized by local, Iraqi constituent institutions. [Back to Top]

 Q: So is that the same thing as saying that my donation doesn't really make a difference? That the "up to 85%" funded locally by those inside Iraq is all that is really necessary to make this work?

A: There is not a single site across Iraq for which our Remedy Missions are fully funded. If we fail to provide our 15-19% of the overall budget, Remedy Missions fail, surgeons and nurses do not get trained regularly, on-site audits from our international team do not happen, up to 20 children are delayed from receiving surgery, and a few may even die or become inoperable. Your role in funding the remaining 15-19% is as critical in the short term as any other entity. A single Remedy Mission is binary - it either happens or it doesn't. Your money makes it happen. But our goal is to continue to graduate all our programs so they are 100% funded locally in the next 5-10 years. [Back to Top]

 Q: Any other costs?

A: Our numbers per Remedy Mission do not account for "indirect costs," such as the cost (or value) of our volunteer medical staff from around the world, costs to local healthcare systems, the cost of a family to travel to the surgery site, the opportunity costs of lost income for families as they wait for surgery, etc. The reason we think it's important to note this here is because lifesaving is actually quite difficult. Building a pediatric cardiac surgery system for the entire country of Iraq is laborious and full of complexities. [Back to Top]

 Q: What is the bottleneck to more surgeries: money or skilled labor?

A: People often assume that the biggest need is more Iraqi heart surgeons. We could use a few more, but the real bottleneck is skilled nurses, technicians, and non-surgical physicians. A surgeon is only as good as his support staff. One of our biggest challenges is training pediatric cardiac intensive care nurses. To date, we haven't found a better model than our Remedy Missions through which we bring quarterly hands-on training to local nurses (and surgeons) in Iraq. Rather than exporting the nurses to Europe or the USA for training (whose medical systems barely resemble the Iraqi system), we train them with what they have on hand in their local environment. [Back to Top]

 Q: I'm skeptical of non-profits and charities because they always seem to be asking for more money. How can I be sure that Preemptive Love Coalition has "room for more funding" and that I'm not paying into a huge savings account, "Rainy Day Fund", or something similar?

A: For the record, we are skeptical of non-profits as well! In 2012 PLC needs $350,000 on hand at any given time to cover our cash flow needs for up to three Remedy Missions per quarter. We are still 30% under-funded against that goal. In addition to cash flow needs, we still require 15-19% funding on most of our missions after local sources contribute their portion; we have un-funded pilot programs in new cities where local doctors have been requesting our help (but where weve yet to woo local philanthropists or health directors); and we have research and social service initiatives through our Followthrough program that require funding at present because we have not yet sought local funding for those initiatives (seeing as how they relate mostly to our Monitoring & Impact Evaluation objectives). Please see our "Funding Gap" page to look deeper into our anticipated program costs, the sources of funding we are counting on, and the funding gap between the two for the next few years. [Back to Top]

 Q: Do you have enough volunteer surgeons available for unfunded Remedy Missions? (i.e., are there trips that you could fund if you had more money, or is there a labor bottleneck?)

A: Great question! We use a hybrid volunteer/staff model. Roughly 25-30% of any one of our Remedy Mission teams is employed by the International Children's Heart Foundation (typically the surgeon, scrub nurse, anesthesiologist, ICU doctor, and often a part-time ICU nurse). The remainder of the team typically comprises volunteer physicians, technicians, and nurses from across the world. Because the hardest-to-come-by positions are contract labor for us and NOT volunteers, we have never failed to run a mission for lack of personnel. We have only cancelled or turned down a request for a future mission due to lack of funding. [Back to Top]

 Q: Many heart surgeries require follow-up treatment (including additional surgeries). Do you have a way of providing these to patients?

A: Yes, we do. Our model dictates quarterly visits to each program site (a hospital inside a regional hub). Our reliance on local cardiologists ensures that the local team prioritizes and almost entirely sets the agenda for patient selection (within a development curricula) - after all, Iraqi doctors are the ones who are most intimately connected to the patients and their daily progress! When a local cardiologist sees a child who has either (1) deteriorated and requires another intervention or (2) advanced as expected to the next step of a complex, staged intervention, the child is prioritized for follow-up treatment. [Back to Top]

 Q: How do you assess whether surgeries are completed competently and appropriately?

A: Because we are a broker and play a combination administrative and financier role in the coalition of partners working in Iraq to develop pediatric cardiac care, we are able to stand in-between the local surgical team and the international surgical team (whom we contract as a third-party to train and perform surgeries in Iraq). If the local team or health directorate suspects a lack of competence in the international team, a cavalier attitude, or a single poor judgement call, our role is to be the go-between - to be the advocate for the local healthcare providers vis-a-vis the international surgical team.

Similarly, if the international surgical team feels pushed by the local surgical team to perform procedures with which they are uncomfortable or for which they think the local system is ill-prepared, they are able to refuse children for surgery and/or use us (PLC) as a go-between.

The checks-and-balance between the two teams helps us ensure surgeries are performed in a competent, appropriate manner. [Back to Top]

 Q: What is the rate of complications during and following surgery?

A: We report our in-hospital and 60-day mortality after each Remedy Mission. You can finds those numbers here. We also produce reports after each Remedy Mission detailing the trip, including data on intraoperative complications, post-operative complications, and mortality. You can find those reports here. We are also deliberately raising the funds necessary to help us bring our various heart hospitals into compliance with the International Quality Improvement Collaborative for Congenital Heart Surgery in Developing Countries. If this kind of quality improvement and reporting initiative interests you, we are currently looking for financial partners for our Followthrough program. [Back to Top]

 Q: How do you assess whether surgeons are performing additional surgeries that they would have not had the funding or motivation to perform otherwise?

A: Pediatric heart surgery in Iraq is almost nonexistent without our work. There are two active programs for relatively simple surgeries (one in Erbil and one in Baghdad). Local surgeons claim that combined they perform no more than a few hundred pediatric surgeries a year. In every location where we work, pediatric heart surgery is effectively nonexistent. Therefore, every surgery performed at our program sites (both when we are present and when we are not) are "additional surgeries" that they would not have had the SKILL to perform without the FUNDING we employed to train them in their local environment. [Back to Top]

 Q: How do you assess whether surgeons are charging their patients for the surgeries you fund?

A: Because we work in public (government) hospitals - and because healthcare in Iraq is provided almost entirely free of charge - it is widely known that any cardiologist, surgeon, or administrator seeking compensation for services is acting outside of Iraqi law. [Back to Top]

 Q: Do you follow up with the surgeons you've trained to assess whether they are correctly applying their training?

A: We see them quarterly in their local environment and perform real-time audits of their skills, recollection of past training, application of new techniques, etc. Additionally, our international surgeon remains on call at any time via phone, Skype, or email for consultation. [Back to Top]

 Q: What information is available on the activities - and competence - of the surgeons you've trained?

A: Because our Remedy Mission training program only began in late 2010 - and pediatric heart surgery at our sites across Iraq is the same age - there is still relatively little independent practice to report, and therefore little data on the activities and competence of our surgeons and their teams. But as they begin performing more surgeries independently, we are trying to align each site/surgical team with the International Quality Improvement Collaborative for Congenital Heart Surgery in Developing Countries (a data collection and tracking initiative of Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard University). [Back to Top]

 Q: Where do surgeons work after completing training? Do they serve poor patients?

A: As of Q2 2011 there was only one private hospital in Iraq (to our knowledge) providing pediatric heart surgery (and those surgeries were on the lower end of the complexity scale). Our work does not necessarily mean to exclude private hospitals as they continue to come online and become viable options, but at present the government system has a better equipped foundation for training local surgical teams. As we look to fully graduate our local surgical teams in the next 5-10 years, we imagine that most of them will stay in the public sector for all of the stability, pensions, and benefits of loyalty provided to those who stick with it. But, undoubtedly, some will seek positions at private hospitals (assuming private hospitals are willing to invest in the requisite capital purchases necessary to establish a credible program). In the public sector, rich and poor are served alike. In the private sector, poorer patients would be at an obvious disadvantage. [Back to Top]

 Q: How much do you spend each year on "program" expenses and how much on "overhead?"

A: As a rule, we do not adhere to the model that claims that "overhead" is somehow bad and "program" is somehow good. There are very bad program expenses. There are overhead expenses that are excellent investments. We agree with Paul Brest, President of the Hewlett Foundation, when he said, "Achieving a low overhead ratio drives many charities to behaviors that make them less effective and means more, not less, wasted dollars." Therefore, we spend as much on overhead as we need to accomplish our mission. The mission itself is our North Star - not arbitrary (even harmful) standards about overhead-vs-program expenditures. For the record, however, you can find a current pie chart of our expenditures here (and if you're into that sort of thing, you'll probably be impressed!). [Back to Top]

Jeremy Courtney Founder, Executive Director Twitter: @Jeremy_Courtney

“I'd love to hear any critique or questions you might have!”

DROP A NOTE OR DONATION BY MAIL: Preemptive Love Coalition 1300 Darbyton Dr. Hewitt, TX 76643 GIVE BY PHONE: To make a gift over the phone, using your credit card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover), please call +1 (806) 853-9131 during normal business hours. IRAQ OFFICE: +964 770-355-6298 (local)

We’re Launching The ^#1 Surgical Training Program In All Of Iraq!

July 26, 2012 by Cody · Leave a Comment 

It seems fitting that all of this starts with a little boy named Haydar.

Haydar means “lion” in Arabic and when the local doctors in Nasiriyah, Iraq sent us a list of 500 children that they wanted to save during the Remedy Fellowship, Haydar was sitting at the top of the list.

And so the ^#1 surgical training program in all of Iraq—Remedy Fellowship—is set to begin in just a few hours with a lifesaving operation for Haydar!

Haydar will be followed by hundreds more in the coming months as the Remedy Fellowship provides 47 weeks of lifesaving surgery and training to doctors and nurses from all over Iraq.

But before we begin by saving Haydar, I want to thank you, because I know that all of this began with you.

It began with us telling you how we have the incredible opportunity to partner with Iraq and save hundreds of lives while giving the Nasiriyah Heart Center their best chance at becoming a sustainable and enduring local solution for children all over Iraq who have been born with heart defects.

Then you joined us. You donated your hard-earned money and you used your voice to ensure that the people of Iraq were given this opportunity.

And it worked—you’ve given us everything we need to launch the Fellowship today!

It’s made all the difference for Haydar.

Thank you!

Our Partners:

Cody Fisher is the co-founder and Development Director of the Preemptive Love Coalition. He moved to Iraq in 2007 where he met his wife and since then they've been waging peace and mending hearts across Iraq. His passions are photography, peacemaking, and food that doesn't come out of a can. You can follow him on Twitter: @candmfisher.

Happy (Early) Father’s Day!

June 14, 2012 by Cody · Comments Off 

I remember graduating from high school like it was yesterday.

When I put on that sleek black graduation gown, I felt like I was donning the uniform for an exclusive club. I was no longer a high school student. I was someone different—someone new. (That is, once I turned in my overdue library books a week later in exchange for my actual diploma.)

And then, what seemed like just days after, I remember walking across the platform and being handed the diploma that officially sealed my college career. The thrill of entering the “real world” was electrifying—I might as well have been knighted on that platform!

Then there was the next platform where I made my vows and became a married man. Surely, I was making all of this up. I never believed I would make it this far in life.

And then, just a few days ago I stood alongside my bride in a dingy and poorly-lit doctor’s office, tucked away in an Iraqi market brimming with crowds of people. There was no platform, no diplomas, no stands filled with people. In the corner of the room stood an outdated ultrasound machine showing us the baby who was growing inside my wife. Dr. Parween, our dear Iraqi doctor, finally caught up with our baby in the midst of the baby’s flailing limbs and printed our baby’s first picture to take home on a piece of paper.

It was a little bit bigger than a stamp, and it sank in a little bit more: I’m going to be a father.

That photo has since made it to the desktop of my computer where it’s brought to the front of my screen multiple times during the day, reminding me that I didn’t just make believe Dr. Parween and her dingy office but that I’m really going to be a dad, and that blurry 2D ultra-sound photo is really mine to keep.

Next to that photo is another picture I received a few days before from a friend of a friend. It’s of a baby boy’s room in Syria. It’s not a photo you’ll find on Pinterest—there’s no color sequence bedding, no vintage storybook photos on the wall, or baby names embroidered on pillows. It’s of a boy sprawled out on a ripped piece of foam, separating him from the concrete floor. The only other thing in the photo is a coat rack bolted into the wall. Instead of coats, I counted 14 AK-47’s dangling from the rack.

I lost my faith in guns awhile ago, but I feel like I finally understand, if only a little, why that boy’s father may be fighting. As my wife feels the first kicks of our baby, I feel the beginnings of a love that I’ve never felt before. It’s difficult to think of anything I wouldn’t already do for this child. Probably much like that boy’s father in Syria, I woke up this morning believing that the way things are isn’t the way they have to be.

It’s that shared belief that makes me so incredibly thankful to be a part of this Coalition. A Coalition that believes that things can and should be different and that this change can and should start by loving before anything; loving preemptively.
 May our children not be robbed of the witness they need in order to believe that there can be an alternative to war.

Thanks for not robbing Iraq of that witness. Thank you for all the lives you’ve helped us save and for all the father’s days you’ve made possible.

Let me hear your thoughts on fatherhood this year—write me and tell me what you think. I’d love to hear from you!

Cody Fisher is the co-founder and Development Director of the Preemptive Love Coalition. He moved to Iraq in 2007 where he met his wife and since then they've been waging peace and mending hearts across Iraq. His passions are photography, peacemaking, and food that doesn't come out of a can. You can follow him on Twitter: @candmfisher.

“So…Why Are We Here?”

January 12, 2012 by Cody · Comments Off 

After flying in from England, Iceland, Pakistan, Canada and America, all 15 of us walked into the hospital today to kick off the first day of Remedy.

We made it up to the operating theater on the second floor then promptly moved into a debate about football and why the Americans get away with calling it “soccer”. From there the debate shifted to American football and how that name doesn’t even make sense for the sport.

With people from over five countries in one room there are bound to be more debates like this one!

After we agreed to disagree, the lead ICU nurse posed the question. “So, why are we here?”

After a few seconds he continued, “I’m not sure what your past experiences are or how many trips you’ve been on like this one but I can assure you that we’re not here to do a bunch of surgeries. We’re here to use surgery as a tool for teaching and empowering others.”

And just like that, as soon as we knew again how to answer the question of why we were here, Remedy was officially underway!

Yes – we want to save as many lives as possible these next two weeks. But more than that, we came to teach.

The debate about “soccer” and “football” is bound to continue, but the debate about why all of us are here was answered with that one statement.

The first surgery gets underway in just minutes…stay tuned!

Our Partners:

Cody Fisher is the co-founder and Development Director of the Preemptive Love Coalition. He moved to Iraq in 2007 where he met his wife and since then they've been waging peace and mending hearts across Iraq. His passions are photography, peacemaking, and food that doesn't come out of a can. You can follow him on Twitter: @candmfisher.

In A Word: “Dayjob”

September 7, 2011 by Lydia · 1 Comment 

A man sells (and models) toys in the Sulaymaniyah bazaar.

Lydia Bullock wrote and photographed for us during the 2010 summer internship and then again for 7 months in 2011. She documented surgical missions in northern and southern Iraq. See more of her excellent work on our Flickr stream, or follow her on Twitter: @lydiabullock.

In the News: “Rebuilt Iraq hospital plans surgery on infants”

September 1, 2011 by Craig · Leave a Comment 

Photo credit: AFP

A hospital in Iraq is back up on its feet after years of getting knocked down and now it’s better and bigger than ever!

Rebuilt after many years of violence in Iraq, the Ibn al-Bitar Hospital for Cardiac Surgery in Baghdad is beginning a new program to teach its doctors how to better operate on children who need heart surgery.

“”Until now, we have not been able to conduct heart surgery on infants,’ said Doctor Hussein Ali al-Hilli, director of the Ibn Bitar Hospital for Cardiac Surgery in Baghdad.

‘We receive 80 children a day with various heart-related birth defects that we cannot treat. We need three years to learn because such procedures are complicated,’ he added.”

Want to know more about this amazing project? Check out the full story here and tell us what you think in the comments section below!

Craig's Mom is our hero. She brought not one, but two sets of twins into the world, and Craig is the best that we've met of his siblings. As our copy editing intern, he is spending his summer serving Iraqi children through writing and editing, and on the side he enjoys playing Taboo, hanging out in teashops at night, and jamming out to classical piano music.

Kurdish Book Salesman

April 13, 2011 by matt · Comments Off 

As Communication Director, Matt Willingham spends most of his time trying to get the word out on PLC's work in Iraq. On the side, he likes reading stories, devouring the great food his wife cooks up, and DSLR camera work. He's also mildly obsessed with Twitter: @mehtin.

His Heart Condition is Threatening His Life – Have You Met Alawi?

February 18, 2011 by Jeremy · 632 Comments 

You need to.

This just may be the cutest and most adorable boy in Iraq.

Alawi Hussein is just under three and a half years old and he was born with a congenital heart defect.

At 9 months old, instead of taking bets on what his first word was going to be, his parents were coping with the devastating news that Alawi had a heart problem. It was a heart problem, like most heart problems in Iraq, that could only be fixed outside of Iraq.

The list of countries that could help him was long.

Iran.

Turkey.

Jordan.

India.

America.

Basically – many other countries except the one he was born in.

While the list of opportunities was long, the list of actual possibilities for Alawi was short.

Hearing about all the doctors overseas that can heal your son is simply cruel if you don’t have the money – or even a passport – to pursue the option.

His family had to learn to enjoy the time they had with Alawi and just hope for a remedy the doctors might have somehow missed.

That surprise came this month when they were called by their local cardiologist here in southern Iraq and told that Alawi no longer needs to go overseas to be saved, because of a team of doctors and nurses that was being brought in to save his life at the hospital just fifteen minutes from their home

It was thirty-two months later than they were hoping but remedy finally came to southern Iraq.

We still hope that Alawi’s family will visit foreign countries someday, but not as last chance medical tourists!

You are the Remedy.

You bring in medical teams every time you give. Our medical teams teach Iraqi doctors and nurses. Our medical teams save lives. So Iraqi doctors and nurses learn how to save lives. Our medical team goes home. The Iraqi’s keep saving lives.

It’s one beautiful domino affect!

We hope we can save Alawi’s life this week… and not just because he’s one of the cutest boys in Iraq! Follow Alawi’s story this week on the blog and on our Facebook page (<-- link) to see what comes next...

Our Partners

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.

Cardiac Caths Save Lives, Time, Space, Money, & Dodge Dishonor for Females Before Marriage

August 29, 2010 by Jeremy · Comments Off 

Photos by Heber Vega

This week we were able to help three children without subjecting them to the trauma of an open-heart surgery. A procedure in which a catheter is inserted through the femoral artery, all the way into the heart, and ultimately used to correct a number of different heart defects.

Recovery times from these types of procedures are considerably shorter and the procedure itself is considerably less risky for the patient. These patients don’t stay “parked” in an already crowded Intensive Care Unit and typically end up going home in a much shorter period of time than even the fastest surgery patients.

The International Children’s Heart Foundation team prefers to use this method whenever possible, but finds it particularly helpful with older females who might otherwise be considered less desirable for marriage with a huge scar down the sternum.

All three kids who received cardiac cath intervention this week are discharged and playing safely at home; even while we have two in ICU and a handful still in the ward.

Thanks for making our training and surgery mission happen this week. This Remedy Mission and the various diagnostic, interventional, surgical, and administrative techniques learned locally this week will continue to save lives long after all these kids go home!

Have you enjoyed this week? We have! Please consider making a donation for our next mission if you believe in what we’re doing by clicking the DONATE link in the header above.

With you,

Remedy Missions are international pediatric heart surgery teams that we bring to Iraq to to perform lifesaving heart surgeries and develop the infrastructure for the future. If you’re on Twitter this week be sure to use the #Remedy or #RemedyMission hashtag to describe all the good news coming out of Iraq this week via @preemptivelove and @babyheart_org. If you’re on Facebook, “Share” this story with the button below.

Our Partners:

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.

Jeen’s Surgery is a Total Correction After Doctors Work Until 4 a.m. on Failed Catheter Correction

August 3, 2010 by Jeremy · 1 Comment 

It has been a rough week for Jeen Mustafa. Her loving sister brought her outside of Iraq by donating her life-savings to PLC in hopes of procuring for her sister a non-invasive correction for her relatively simple heart defect. Simple does not mean unimportant, however; especially when it is your sister. Jeen would have never risen to the top of our charitable surgery list because her situation was neither urgent nor listed as complicated enough to warrant surgery outside of Iraq’s extremely new surgery industry. So, in an attempt to heal Jeen, her sister offered to pay the entire amount if we had the space and time to heal her sister without displacing another child. We were happy to help and grateful to all the staff and doctors at the Anadolu Medical Center for making this a reality.

We remain committed to helping children who cannot get help inside Iraq, and we draw our cues from the governments with whom we work and from local cardiologists. If they tell us a surgery cannot be performed in country, then we consider that child for placement outside. Thankfully, local adult cardiac surgeons across the country are starting to make forays into pediatric surgery. To be precise, they are vastly different. But we are thrilled to see local surgeons eager for training and upgrading, such as that we are seeking to provide with our Remedy Mission in a few weeks.

Back to Jeen, it was very important to her sister that we pursue for her a non-invasive trans-catheter closure correction in which a catheter and umbrella-type closure device is inserted through the thigh, into the heart, and expanded and attached to the walls of the heart to close the hole that is currently causing her problems as she enters young-womanhood and anticipates marriage and children in the next decade. We ordered the closure device with her sister’s money, and the staff at Anadolu Medical worked overtime upon overtime until 4 a.m. to attach the device non-invasively by catheter. Unfortunately, it ultimately proved impossible and unsafe to settle for that correction and surgery was scheduled.

Surgery was not in the plan and not in the budget. But Dr. Sertaç Çiçek in his continued graciousness and kindness to the children of Iraq agreed for his team to perform surgery pro bono to compensate for the drama and disappointment. Surgery is exactly what they had been trying to avoid. The risk; the recovery; the scars – these were all the things they sought to avoid. But scared and heartbroken Jeen went into surgery to correct the TWO holes in her heart that were revealed during the diagnostic testing.

A few hours later Jeen emerged from surgery with a total correction. It was not the way we had anticipated. But a total correction is a total correction! She has a scar, but she no longer needs to fear marriage and child-birth as a death sentence. She can walk to school with her girlfriends without tiring. She can pay attention and pursue her education and her impressive English-learning without distraction.

And that scar? We think it will stand as a testament to the kindness of the Turkish team that worked for more than they had to and gave far more than was expected to serve a Kurdish child whose family risked it all at the hands of the Turks; the same Turks that some of their neighbors on the Iraq-Turkey border can only see as enemies are the very Turks who saved her life. And this is just the sort of kindness and compassion we’ve seen repeatedly by Dr. Sertaç Çiçek, his entire team, and those in charge of nursing and administration at the Anadolu Medical Center in Istanbul, Turkey.

Follow Jeen on Twitter: @JeenMustafa. Subscribe to Jeen’s updates via RSS HERE.

Our Partners:

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.

Nivar Leaves for Surgery Tonight!

July 17, 2010 by Preston · Comments Off 

Thanks to your amazing support, Nivar is leaving for heart surgery in Turkey tonight at 6 p.m. (Central). Nivar has a four-fold set of heart conditions called Tetralogy of Fallot.

While this is one of the most common forms of congenital heart disease, it is also one of the most debilitating. The hole and restricted blood flow in her heart keep her from playing with all of her friends. Nivar’s birthday is soon approaching, and she also is the proud new sister of a little baby girl. With this surgery, she can enjoy her birthday and new baby sister even more.

Follow Nivar on Twitter: @NivarMohammed. Subscribe to Nivar’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Nivar’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.

Preston Wright, a PLC summer intern ('10), has dedicated his summer to spending time working with the Iraqi people, specifically, visiting with Kurdish children, Klash makers and doctors. When he is not preoccupied with his intern duties the West Tennesseean enjoys playing soccer and working with children.

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OUR BLOGGERS

	Matt Willingham is the PLC press secretary and writes primarily on politics, history, general updates and visual peacemaking through photography and film.
	Cody Fisher is a PLC cofounder and writes primarily on program development and peacemaking by giving us a lens into the lives of the real people we love.
	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 children in pursuit of peace between communities at odds. We offer the untold thousands of Iraqi kids 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.

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