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?"


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 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)

Counting Kids: Researching Heart Defects in Dohuk

June 12, 2012 by Alicia · Leave a Comment 

Right off the bat, I got to be a part of something awesome here in Iraq.

I joined PLC’s groundbreaking research in the city of Dohuk in Iraqi Kurdistan. Many reports in recent years claim that there are more heart defects in Iraq than other countries in the Middle East. In Fallujah, news reports state 10 times more birth defects than the world average. However, these numbers are based on general observations, not a systematic study. Is it possible that doctors who only see sick children would think there are many more birth defects than there really are?

The best way to find out if there are more kids being born with broken hearts is to count all the children who are born, then see how many have heart defects are detected. That way, the number of healthy babies can be compared to the number of babies with defects to get an accurate ratio of sick to healthy babies. This is exactly what we did in the city of Dohuk.

Alongside long-time friend and partner of PLC, Dr. Kirk Milhoan and Dr. Serdar Pedawi, I was a part of a research team working to identify the heart defect “incidence” or number of new cases of babies born with heart defects out of all babies born over a certain time period. We set up camp at Azadi Teaching Hospital in Dohuk, and every child that was born came to us to be screened for heart defects.

This was done using an echocardiogram (ECHO) machine, which is similar to an ultrasound that allows pregnant mothers to see their babies. It provides a way to look at the heart from the outside, quickly and painlessly. All children born in Azadi Hospital during the week of the study had to be screened in order to obtain their birth certificate, so we were able to screen more than 180 kids!

Each individual encounter was very similar. The moms were usually too worn out from childbirth to bring the babies to us (understandably so!). It fell to the grandmothers and aunts to take care of the newborn while mom got some rest. It was beautiful to see how much love and care was shown to each baby we screened. They were all wrapped tightly in brightly colored clothes and tucked into what I can only describe as a fancy baby sleeping bag.

The children truly lived up to the phrase of “bundles of joy.” The pride and joy of family members was evident, but with it came the anxious fear that their baby could have something wrong with their heart. Immediately at the time of the screening we could tell the family the result of the ECHO.

Thankfully, the vast majority of children had completely normal hearts and their family was always relieved and ecstatic to hear the good news. But there were some babies who did indeed have heart defects. Some had leaky heart valves and others had holes in their heart. Assurance was given to the families that these were not immediately life-threatening emergencies, but that their baby needed to be checked again in a few weeks to see what kind of treatment would be needed to live a normal healthy life.

Dr. Serdar works full time as a Pediatric Cardiologist in Dohuk, and thus will take care of these babies directly. Research can sometimes be all about collecting numbers, but this research heavily emphasized providing practical medical care for those who were found to have heart defects.

It was an absolutely incredible experience to interact with the Kurdish and Arab families in Dohuk as well as to be a part of a first-ever scientific study. It was very fulfilling to contribute to the gathering of facts, which is a large part of why I’m pursuing a Master’s in Public Health. Having solid facts puts Preemptive Love Coalition that much closer to eradicating the backlog by treating kids who need lifesaving heart surgeries.

This research is the first step in providing information for the Kurdish Regional and Iraqi Central Government and any other organization that wants an answer to the question: how many Iraqi children are being born with heart defects?

5 Ways to Destroy a Nation’s Healthcare System

September 9, 2011 by Ryan · 2 Comments 

Whenever someone hears about our kids or reads about our work they almost always arrive at the same question: “How did Iraq get this way?” “What caused this?” “Who’s to blame?”

Well, after 4 years of working throughout this country we believe we can provide you with a concise answer to that incredibly complex question. This isn’t about guilting anyone or pointing the finger (there’s already too much of that going around), but it is a hard look at the answer to your question.

Based on Iraq’s history, here are 5 ways to destroy a nation’s healthcare system:

1. Limit a country’s ability to operate politically and economically
In 1990 the UN Security Council passed Resolution 661, which imposed broad, restrictive regulations upon Iraq. In a nutshell, these regulations stipulated that no country in the UN could import or receive any goods from the country.

Unfortunately, the sanctions did more than impede the political and military action of the Iraqi aggressors. The Iraqi economy, that had been so dependent upon oil exports and foreign trade, crashed as a direct result of the Resolution 661.

In 1989 Iraq’s gross domestic profit was over $66 billion. Just seven years later it was estimated as being $10.8 billion. In 1989, annual income per household was $3,510, and by 1996 had fallen to less than $500. Before the sanctions, 93% of the population had ready access to healthcare institutions, which were staffed primarily by physicians who had been trained in Europe or the United States.

This economic collapse primed the country for the health crisis it is in today, a health crisis that has lead to the death of inestimable millions over the last two decades.

2. Slash governmental healthcare funding
In the 1990′s Saddam Hussein cut spending on healthcare by 90%. Continued education, supplies of necessary equipment, and valuable public health programs all suffered without adequate funding research.

Without funding and governmental support, the healthcare system deteriorated.

3. Reduce the number of medical professionals in the country
In some areas, insurgents made it a practice of targeting medical professionals. Although many doctors were not individually targeted, they were still in danger. Ambulances were frequently robbed of their medical supplies, and it was not uncommon for gunmen to enter hospitals and force doctors to care for their injured family members or comrades.

Another blow was dealt to the stability of Iraq’s healthcare when many doctors and nurses, who were lucky enough to escape death, fled the country in a mass exodus, further damaging the quality of the Iraqi healthcare system.

The murder and exodus of Iraqi healthcare professionals is tragic. It has left many families broken and many patients without the care that they need. But the negative effects extend beyond their families and the patients they left behind. Without their mentor-ship, expertise, and knowledge, generations of students from universities and teaching hospitals will continue to have insubstantial educations.

4. Destroy physical healthcare infrastructure
In 2003 American and Coalition forces destroyed two primary public health laboratories and an estimated 12% of hospitals. While speaking about the state of the nation’s healthcare infrastructure, former Minister of Health of Iraq, Khudair Abbas, explained that of the remaining primary care centers, “15% have been looted. Even though 80% remain intact, 40% need extensive repairs…13% do not have clean water and one third are staffed primarily by paramedics rather than physicians”.

During the Gulf War, American and coalition forces destroyed key elements of Iraq’s infrastructure. “Bridges, communications, electricity supplies, water and sewage systems, weapons factories, healthcare facilities, administrative centers, warehouses” and homes were destroyed. While this may have been a strategy aimed at ceasing Iraq’s ability to make war, this strategy did far more than defeat the Iraqi military.

5. Overburden the healthcare system by creating too many patients

The above contributing factors deal primarily with political, structural, organizational, or educational deficits. Ultimately, however, it is the population of patients that compose the largest component of any healthcare system. And, regrettably, there is a vast population of patients in Iraq.

The demolition of water and sewage treatment plants lead to outbreaks of typhoid and cholera. In 1989, there were no cases of cholera per 100,000 people; just 5 years later there were 1,344 cases per 100,000 people.

According to studies, by 1996 31% of children under five were chronically malnourished. Just a year later, there were a million children under the age of five who were malnourished, and a year after that 70% of women were suffering from anemia. Another study, consistent with the information on malnutrition, found widespread, chronic stunting in school children as an indication of long-term malnutrition.

Poverty’s wide-spread negatively affects the livelihood of the Iraqi people. Low socioeconomic status is associated with lower levels of education, poorer nutritional intake, and higher risk of congenital heart defects.

Research shows that poor diet contributes to far more negative effects than weight loss, anemia, nutritional deficiency, and compromised immune system. Without the funds to afford healthier food, mothers with higher intake of saturated fats and lower intake of nicotinamide (vitamin B3) have increased risk of giving birth to children with congenital heart defects. 5, 8 Furthermore, low dietary intake levels of folic acid (vitamin B9) around the time of conception have been linked to higher risk of neural tube disorders.

But nutrition and education are not the sole arbiters of death and ill health. Many parts of the country still suffer from the chemical and biological attacks perpetrated by Saddam Hussein. Not only are individuals suffering from primary exposure, but research supports that children of those who were exposed suffer secondary effects in the form of birth defects.

The list of health problems and their contributing factors continues ad nauseam, and the patient-load continues to overwhelm doctors.

The evidence shows that the state of Iraq’s healthcare system has been nearly two decades in the making. The downward spiral began with sanctions in the 1990’s by making the nation more susceptible to economic collapse. It continued with a multitude of factors including military action by the US and Coalition forces, violence wrought by religious extremists, and a vast backlog of patients.

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The question remains, is it too late for Iraqis to rebuild their healthcare system?

Is Iraq too far gone?

Of course not! The restoration of Iraq’s medical infrastructure is happening now!

This November 5th will be our biggest surgical mission yet–lives will be saved, doctors will be trained and Iraq will be one big step closer to restoring what was broken!

Noor’s Heart Is Mended And There Are Teethmarks To Prove It!

July 6, 2011 by Cody · 2 Comments 

The doctors fully repaired Noor’s heart!

She’s thriving in the hospital ward right now as she shows us a side of her that we’ve never seen before. The difference between the Noor before the surgery and the Noor now is unmistakable. Before, we could barely get photos of her awake and active, but now we can’t catch her holding still.

Little Noor has left her mark on all of us…including our hospital equipment! We admit that this is NOT how you show the doctors how well you’re breathing after your surgery. But her teethmarks are another good sign that Noor can’t wait to get out of the hospital and back to being a kid!

Our Partners:

Headed Home While Remedy Continues To Gain Momentum

December 22, 2010 by Cody · Comments Off 

At the end of the first Remedy Mission in Southern Iraq we served 22 families, corrected 45 heart defects and gave a collective 7,000 hours of training to more than 50 local doctors and nurses!

Kids conquered heart disease together, families built new networks of friendships, doctors gained mentors, nurses gathered inspiration, and a foundation was laid for what might someday become a fully functional, locally-run pediatric cardiac surgery center.

Thanks to YOU, the momentum has continued from our first Remedy Mission in Sulaymaniyah last August to the latest mission in Nasiriyah. As we get ready for 2011, both Sulaymaniyah and Nasariyah are preparing for 8 more Remedy Missions this next year!

The growing coalition of partners that continue to bring Remedy include all of us at PLC, our freinds at the International Children’s Heart Foundation, Living Light International, Kurdistan Save the Children, both the Iraqi and Kurdish governments along with local governments and ministries of health, and you!

Without your support, there would be no remedies like what we’re witnessing.

With your support, this will only be the beginning!

With each story that’s told through these missions, a growing community is being drawn to the people of Iraq. As a community, we’re not only beginning to grow in our understanding and love but we’re tangibly waging peace in both our local communities and in communities throughout the Middle East.

It’s a pleasure to be standing alongside you. Let’s press on!

Our Partners:

Just “A Little Longer” For Anwar

December 9, 2010 by Cody · Comments Off 

This is Anwar. He’s homeless. He was also born with a congenital heart defect.

If you spend any time with Anwar and his mother, you quickly learn that they wouldn’t want any of those things to define them. Anwar would rather be known for his love for soccer. He’s in 1st grade but he can’t stand school, mainly because it takes him away from his father.

His father is a skilled farmer. They used to live down by the Kuwait-Iraq border and work on a farm where Anwar loved nothing else but to spend the whole day working alongside his dad.

Then the land ran out of water and they were forced to move further north.

When Anwar was one month old they found out about his heart defect. They traveled to Basra to see local doctors but they told them that they didn’t have the equipment they needed to save Anwar’s life. Even if they were able to buy the equipment, they still needed to be trained on how to use it. Regardless, they told them to just “wait a little longer”.

They went back every month to see if the machines arrived but for 6 years they were continually turned away.

Anwar’s only choice was to go overseas to a country that had the right machines and the doctors who knew how to use them. But it was a choice his family couldn’t even consider because of the cost.

Whatever savings they had was continually being put towards staying warm in the winter. If Anwar gets cold, his body begins to shake and his heart condition worsens. Because of that, all their money goes towards buying kerosene to keep the heaters burning.

This winter that kerosene bill may just be a little less because Anwar heads into surgery within the next hour! The doctors have the machines they’ve been waiting for and now they’re receiving the training they need to use the machines for the very first time!

Now, Anwar truly only has to wait “a little longer.”

Stay tuned…

Our Partners:

Teaching Others The Remedy

December 7, 2010 by Cody · Comments Off 

Remember when you were little and people would ask you what you wanted to be when you grew up?

We all wanted to be doctors or astronauts, didn’t we? Being around the medical team from ICHF makes me want to give the next 8 years of my life to medical school, I admit it. If you’re in the middle of med school already, don’t give up. It’s going to be worth it. If you don’t believe me, come with us to the next Remedy.

What I’m learning more and more from this team isn’t just the importance of people wanting to become doctors when they grow up, but the importance of people wanting to grow up to teach and inspire others to become doctors. If one person becomes a doctor or a nurse, it’s a great thing. But if that one nurse or doctor trains others to become like them, and then they turn around and train more…who makes the greater impact?
This is one of the most beautiful pieces of Remedy. Teaching.

Dr. Bob Arnold is a pediatric cardiologist. He’s traveled the world training and instructing others on the best practices of cardiology. His first night here a man came up to him saying that he was one of his students that he taught when he was in Baghdad in the 1990’s. Now that student is helping complete Iraq’s newest cardiac center for children here in Southern Iraq.

Today I spent time shadowing Dr. Arnold as he took echos and continued teaching throughout the process. I spent a few moments with one of his new students, a young Arab doctor and aspiring cardiologist, Dr. Gaither. Dr. Gaither went on about the value of what he’s learned already even just after the first few hours. Then he started to talk about the importance of working with other countries. “Each country needs to work together”, he said, “we all have so much to learn from each other.”

That’s it, isn’t it?

We all have so much to learn from each other. People teaching one other. Nations teaching nations.

These two weeks of Remedy are profoundly shaping the lives of everybody involved. I guess it all started with someone, long ago, who wanted to teach someone else how to be a doctor.

Stay tuned…

Remedy Missions are international pediatric heart surgery teams that we bring to Iraq to perform lifesaving heart surgeries and develop the infrastructure for the future. This Remedy Mission is made possible by the Vice President of Iraq, Living Light International, and the International Children’s Heart Foundation. If you’re on Twitter this week be sure to use the #RemedyMission hashtag to describe all the good news coming out of Iraq via @preemptivelove and @babyheart_org. If you’re on Facebook, “Share” this story with the button below.

Our Partners:

Congratulations to Jon Vidar for His Award-Winning Remedy Mission Photo!

November 26, 2010 by matt · Comments Off 

No amount of blog posts could quite communicate all the good that has come from our August Remedy Mission with the International Children’s Heart Foundation.

We saw partnerships formed and solidified, peace was forged between people who came in opposing one another, local involvement increased in Iraq, Kurdish and Arab doctors and nurses were trained and, of course, children’s lives were saved.

And now we’re pleased to congratulate Remedy Mission photographer, Jon Vidar, on his exceptional photo:

The above photo won the People’s Choice Award at FotoWeekDC 2010 and is now hanging in the Corcoran Gallery of Art. 6,500 submissions from over 35 countries made for some steep competition – congrats, Jon!

Take a Look Around our Operating Room with this Interactive Panorama

August 25, 2010 by Jeremy · 1 Comment 

USE ARROWS OR MOUSE ABOVE TO CHANGE THE VIEW OF THE PANORAMA
Photos & Panorama Created by Jon Vidar

It has always been a desire of ours to show you the impact of your donations, your purchases, your advocacy, and your sharing on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

We’ve also wanted to find ways to make this work together with you as interactive as possible. That’s why we send out frequent emails asking for your feedback; it’s why we create interactive timelines that allow you to walk through the various channels we use to tell a child’s story; and it’s why we offered live telephone updates from Iraq during Remedy Mission to anyone interested.

Of course, what we would love to do is bring each one of you into the surgery you helped fund… but unfortunately, that’s just not feasible! We try to make up for it with our photography, cinematography, and storytelling, but there is obviously nothing like being there.

So please accept this interactive space as our next best effort to bring you into the room with us. When you use the arrows on your keyboard or your mouse above to click around you will be able to see a full 360-degree view of the new operating theatre here in Iraq that has been used during this Remedy Mission to train local doctors and save little lives.

And if you like the experience above, please tell your friends by using the “SHARE” utility/button below!

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:

This is How We Wage Peace

August 17, 2010 by Cody · 1 Comment 

Photo by Jon Vidar

It’s cities like Baghdad, Fallujah and Nasiriyah that always bring to mind the hellish video clips and photos we’ve all seen flashed across our TV screens. Car Bombs. Kidnappings. Militias. Chaos. It’s true, the South of Iraq has dangerous places. What we don’t see flashed across our TV screens are the images of a different kind of war. A war we were all made for. A war for peace, wholeness, and reconciliation between enemies.

Today, in Southern Iraq, a car bomb killed 48 people. At that same time, a few hours away, a little boy named Hussein Ahmed, an Arab from the South, was receiving a lifesaving heart surgery from American & Kurdish doctors in the North because of people all over the world who fought to make it a reality for him and so many others. Hussein was the first of four children from Nasiriyah whom the Vice President of Iraq himself requested we admit to surgery.

Photo by Jon Vidar

At 6′ 5″, Dr. Novick towers over almost everyone. Doctors in Iraq have to get creative to observe and participate in surgery and training.

As we sat and talked with Hussein, his family, and the director of the hospital in Nasariya who traveled up to witness the surgeries, we spoke of cooperation, peace, and our desire to invest in families like Hussein’s and the countless others in his city that have been affected by war. One of the first questions they asked of us is, “Will you come to Nasiriya?”

This past week Dr. Novick, our first Remedy Mission heart surgeon, was in Nasiriya and families were literally running to bring him their children with heart defects. If they’re running to others for help, then we should run to them to give it.

It’s true, Nasiriya has often been a city that has seemed to be unraveling at the seams.  Will we go there? Are they worth the risk?

We believe they are. If it’s a place that’s unraveling, then it’s a place that we want to rush to mend. This week you’ve helped us wage peace and saved the life of the first of many of Nasiriya’s children. You’ve shown them that even when car bombs and explosions escalate, so too can love. You’ve reminded them that there are still people out there that believe in them and believe there can be hope in Southern Iraq.

You’ve shown Hussein that his heart is worth fighting for and now he’s continuing that fight in the ICU.

Help us tell the story of Hussein and the children from Nasiriya this week as we follow them to recovery!

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:

A Call to Action for Remedy Missions in Iraq This Summer

June 14, 2010 by Esther · Comments Off 

“30 Kids in 30 Days!”

This rally cry has been heard in our office and seen on our website several times throughout the last month, but what exactly does it mean?

This August, the Preemptive Love Coalition is planning to partner with the International Children’s Heart Foundation to bring in both immediate and long-term life-saving opportunities to children in Iraq with congenital heart defects. We call these surgical training missions “Remedy Missions.”

These more localized forms of surgeries will make it easier for children to get to surgeries without having to travel to different countries, and will empower the local doctors to do more in their community.

In keeping the surgeries local, the excess time and money lost to applying for visas, buying plane tickets, packing, and other international travel plans are shaved off. In saving time and money, these localized missions will result in making heart surgeries more available to a wider range of people. In fact, PLC’s goal of seeing 30 children touched in 30 days, if realized, will mean that we help more children in the month of August than we did in the entire 2009 year.

Also, family members will be more accessible to provide love and support for these children who are going through the surgeries. Instead of outsourcing children and one of their family members, we are working to provide care in a familiar environment that will help entire families be part of working through the process together.

The Remedy Missions will not only focus on the immediate need for these dying children, but it will also enhance hope for the future of health care for congenital heart defects in Iraq. This summer world class doctors and nurses will be investing time into local doctors and nurses, giving them training that will make an impact on the people of this country for years to come. This training is so critical to the work being done in Iraq to help combat congenital heart defects because Iraqi cardiologists and surgeons often find it difficult to travel to other countries to learn from seminars and hands-on training. Still, this training is invaluable to them.

For us, the number 30 signifies more than just numbers to tack onto a list of successful heart surgeries or days spent trying to do something with the summer. These 30 are lives that are worth fighting for, worth giving for.

Treatment here is vastly different from that in America. In this country, families do not have the ability to go to the hospital and fix what is wrong with their dying son or daughter, even if they had the money. In the States, how would a father or mother react if, in the middle of the doctor’s visit, the doctor told them, “I’m sorry. Your child is dying. And there is a way to possibly save his life, but I do not know how to do that”?

Though there have been similar efforts, this is the first of its magnitude dealing with complex heart conditions in this area. As of today, we are still trying to raise over $50,000 to make these surgeries a reality. And with a June 19th deadline, we are looking at urgency. But if there are thousands of children dying of heart disease in this country, and there is a possibility of making a dent in that number, how can urgency not be part of the equation?

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