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)

The Gift of an Entire Year of Training—What Would You Do With It?

October 23, 2012 by matt · Leave a Comment 

Astronaut… professional Lego builder… Jedi… primatologist (monkey scientist, for you laymen)…

Growing up, my dream jobs were a little ridiculous, but that’s a part of what made them dreams. And they were mine.

But what if someone had actually approached 8 year-old me and said, “We’re bringing you some of the the best primatologists in the world to train you for an entire year because we want you to be excellent—we’re going to help you achieve your dream.”

Put mildly, I would’ve been very excited.

But that’s monkey business (sorry) when compared with the gift YOU’ve given to Iraqi doctors like Dr. Akeel and his team: an entire year of hands-on training from some of the best cardiac doctors and nurses in the world.

Dr. Akeel’s dream is to become the kind of heart surgeon who can save the lives of thousands and help eradicate The Backlog, and you’re making that possible. This isn’t some silly child-hood fantasy, this is the realization of something incredibly valuable, and it will bless countless lives.

Since we started this year of doctor-training and life-saving down in Nasiriyah nearly four months ago, there has been a constant stream of hands-on training for the doctors and nurses there. The pace of a year-long program like this is much different from our fast-paced, packed Remedy Missions.

As of today, an average of 12 children have received heart operations per month and countless thousands of hours of training have been logged. The International Children’s Heart Foundation team members are creating protocols and teaching the locals how to follow them, the local ICU staff are getting the kind of in-depth training they need, and Dr. Novick is personally there now doing diagnostics, providing operations, and leading training sessions.

But that’s not the best part. The most exciting news is that the people of Nasiriyah and the Thi-Qar province finally have an ongoing source of hope for their children. They don’t have to batter down the hospital doors, begging for a remedy.

Now, the Remedy is there to stay. The doctors aren’t leaving, and they can breathe a little easier knowing the team is working through a long list, getting closer and closer to saving their child’s life, and you helped give that to them. Thank you!

Stay tuned, we’ll have more real-time updates for you from Remedy Fellowship very soon.

###

And what about you? If you had access to a group of experts who were willing to train you toward excellence in a field, what would it be? Comment below or send me an email here, I’d love to hear from you! Just don’t say Jedi…if they come to train someone, it’ll definitely be me.
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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!

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Our Struggle With Mortality

April 10, 2012 by Jeremy · Comments Off 

When you intend to be in the “business” of saving lives, facing up to death can be a difficult thing.

For my part, in leading the Preemptive Love Coalition, knowing how to admit “failure,” when to acknowledge death without assigning fault, and when to let a death go unreported can be very difficult. The inherent difficulties are compounded by my responsibilities to various constituencies, including (but not limited to) the parents, local health care professionals, local political realities, coalition partners, national political realities, and international donors. At any given time, any one of these entities could be pushing for more or less reporting on a specific item; on a specific death and data set that would include a specific death.

In our January Remedy Mission VIII, a little boy named Yousef that we had grown to really love died in surgery. We held him up as a beacon of hope for the future of all Iraqi children facing congenital heart disease. We told his story and proudly proclaimed his desire to be the next world-famous soccer player. And then we asked you to give your money so that he could be saved by a team of international doctors and nurses. We also promised that his surgery would be an occasion for still more training for Iraqi doctors and nurses in our Nasiriyah program in southern Iraq during the mission (which was to be our sixth mission to the center in just 13 months).

Suffice it to say that a local trainee made a mistake that cost Yousef his life.

Because Yousef was the first child in line for treatment that mission, we questioned what the psychological impact would be in widely reporting his death. Again, our considerations involved our international volunteers, local politics, coalition partners and international donors most specifically.

Remedy Mission VIII also featured two first-time nurses from the International Children’s Heart Foundation, both of which provided excellent insights into the local situation and helpful critique about the lack of success and development in the Nasiriyah program.

As we struggled to understand the death (the first mortality in 2-3 missions), our focus was on program development and responses to the conditions that led to the fatal error. Once the mission was over, a few more children had died and reporting on any single one of them was basically more than any of us could stand to emphasize at the time.

A typical response from a surgeon might be “Children have to die in order to build a heart surgery program.” And it’s true. But we are not surgeons. We are just a few normal people who have not held the human heart in our hands and who have not trained for this.

I’m writing to apologize for not reporting on Yousef’s death. We sent a private email to all who donated to Yousef’s account and let them know. But we did not endeavor anything more public.

After the mission a close friend who was still praying for Yousef contacted me without knowing he had died. It was then that I realized how many friends Yousef had and realized that it is not donations alone that tie us each to these children we seek to help. We are drawn in by their eyes, their stories and the hope they exude.

I wish now I would have allowed you to mourn Yousef’s death with us. They are not always easy decisions when juggling the preferences of so many stake holders. But somewhere along the way I gave up trying to push the message out because I did not want to come face to face with the story of his death again.

When you’re in the business of saving lives, “almost” doesn’t count.

We miss Yousef. He was a bright light!

And there are many other children out there who need our help; who are likely to survive; who can greatly benefit from surgical intervention. And there are hundreds of doctors and nurses who desperately need to be trained so they can serve these children on their own.


Thank you for continuing to stand with us…

Jeremy

Please feel free to email me with any questions or concerns.

Reflections On Remedy Mission VIII And The Vision You’re Living Out

January 22, 2012 by Cody · Comments Off 

As I write this, I’m driving away from Remedy Mission VIII. Just hours ago, we were in the hospital waiting for our 16th child to come out of the operating room.

This mission’s last child was a little baby boy named Younis.

Younis came 400 miles to get to Remedy, but the drive took it’s toll and Younis—just 2 months old—came down with a fever. Every day we put him on the schedule for surgery, but every day we had to cancel because his fever wouldn’t break. Some days it would break in the middle of the night, but by the time we could rush to the hospital to operate the fever had returned. This continued until the very last day of the mission. This time his fever broke for good, giving us just enough time to give Younis the lifesaving surgery for which he had traveled so far.

These are the stories of Remedy.

I also had the privilege of telling Ali’s story this mission, but it wasn’t just Ali who you helped us save this mission. You saved Amjed, Zainab, Alawi, Zain, and so many more.

###

This past week I’ve been reflecting more on the lives of these children and the life and vision of Martin Luther King Jr. In between surgical days I re-listened to some of his sermons, trying to once again stir my heart for the things that stirred his.

I was humbled by the devotion and the vision that he carried throughout his life, right up until his assassination. He maintained an astounding vision of God and his fellow man, one that led to his unparalleled passion for justice and peace.

King reminded me once again that there comes a point when silence is betrayal.

And so he shouted out for justice, equality and love. He spoke up for the broken, the poor, the ones affected by unjust war and the ones who had no voice of their own.

And people listened. We’re still listening.

This week I’m profoundly grateful for the life of Martin Luther King Jr. And I’m also profoundly grateful for you.

You see, these Remedy Missions can’t happen without you. In our writings we use the word “I” and “we” a lot but truth-be-told, I can’t think of one thing “I’ or “we” have done apart from you.

Because of that, together we’re breaking the silence. You’re bringing Remedy Missions to cities all over Iraq and because of that you’re saying to the people of Iraq “You are not alone. We are in this together.”

And they’re listening.

Thank you for not reducing the vision and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. to a yearly quote, but for committing to live it out by saving the lives of children like Ali and Younis. Thank you for Remedy Mission VIII!

We’re just two weeks away from our next Remedy Mission….stick with us!

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Breaking News: Ali Made It Through Surgery!

January 19, 2012 by Cody · Comments Off 

Ali was just brought out of the operating theater and into the ICU—with a mended heart!

The next 24 hours will be absolutely crucial for Ali, though. The operation was a complete success, but now we have to wait to see how his heart and the rest of his body will respond.

I ran into the ICU so I could take the above photo of Ali and show it to his mother. She was ecstatic to see her little boy!

Who knows what will happen next—Ali could be up walking around as soon as tomorrow!

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Ali Is In Surgery!

January 18, 2012 by Cody · Comments Off 

I got to the hospital this morning only to find out Ali had just been wheeled into the operating room for surgery.

I went to see how Ali’s mother was doing and she was surrounded by a group of women—all with enormous smiles on their faces. I asked why they were all smiling and they said it’s because Ali is getting his heart fixed!

12 years of waiting for a lifesaving heart surgery…I’d be all smiles too!

Ali should be coming out of the operating room within the next few hours. We’ll let you know how it goes!

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The Former Vice President of Iraq, Dr. Adel Abdul Mahdi Visited Remedy Mission VII!

December 24, 2011 by matt · Comments Off 

We had an unexpected visit the other day from one of our biggest supporters, Iraq’s former Vice President!

With all the recent bad press about Iraqi politics, we’re encouraged by Dr. Adel Abdul Mahdi’s devotion to saving the lives of Iraqi children. He made our first Remedy Missions in southern Iraq possible, and even though his political role has changed, he continues to support our work by visiting children, encouraging doctors and advocating on our behalf.

The Surgery Was A Success! After Much Difficulty, Mohammed & His Mother Are Going Home!

July 10, 2011 by Alex · 1 Comment 

Mohammed – quite possibly one of the cutest kids in southern Iraq – is currently resting after his successful surgery!

On our last day at the hospital we found out that Mohammed has suffered through much more than a failing heart; just before he was born his father left their family, and his mother was left to raise him alone.

That’s a big deal in a region like southern Iraq. It’s not easy for a woman to take on that kind of responsibility alone, which is why I feel such respect for Mohammed’s mother.

Like so many single mothers, she worked hard to raise an amazing kid, and she helped get him to the place where his life could be saved.

So, as we near the end of Remedy Mission VI, we’re celebrating Mohammed’s successful surgery, but we can’t really celebrate his life without acknowledging the hero who has always stood behind him.

We’re excited that Mohammed’s heart is healing, and he can now grow into a man capable of caring for the woman who sacrificed so much for him.

So from Mohammed, his mother, and all of us – thanks for saving his life!

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How We Got Overrun By Healthy Kids (And How It’s All Your Fault!)

July 4, 2011 by Cody · 1 Comment 

It’s official. We’re overrun. And it’s all your fault. (But we’re not complaining.)

When we first started doing this back in 2007, we were around a lot of sick children and very few healthy ones. Because Remedy Missions are spreading across Iraq, we’re still coming across more and more sick children in more communities, but thanks to you guys we’re starting to spend a lot more time with children who USED to have heart defects. Last week you helped us provide our 163rd heart surgery. Tomorrow, we’ll give our 175th! See how fast it’s all happening?!

It was easy to reach the point where we felt overwhelmed by the thousands of sick children in Iraq, but I never thought we would reach the point where we became overwhelmed by the healthy ones.

Thanks to you, we have.

This Remedy Mission, I’ve had the chance to catch up with the local doctors and scroll through all the photos of children from the past missions. We talk about how they’re doing and often they just pick up the phone right there and call them. We’re constantly coming up with ways where we can see them all in person again, too. Recently, we found a way to see Ali Raad from our third Remedy Mission and he’s doing GREAT!

When I asked his family about the biggest change since Ali’s surgery, they smiled and threw their hands in the air and said, “He just doesn’t stop playing!”

Ali’s journey isn’t quite over yet though. Like a lot of children born with heart defects, he was born with a cleft pallet as well. It’s a simple fix but because of his heart defect, doctors couldn’t operate on his cleft pallet unless his heart was fixed. Now that his heart is strong, they just have to wait a few more months to fix his cleft pallet!

If you never gave Ali his heart surgery, he would never have been able to get surgery on his cleft pallet and as a result he never would have had the opportunity to go to school or eat the foods he needs to be eating to grow.

But that’s not the case. Your generosity saved his life and put him back on track to enroll in school next year!

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Noor Is Heading Into Surgery!

July 4, 2011 by Cody · Comments Off 

Noor’s wait is over!

She’s made it into the operating room and the doctors are hard at work making sure that they send Noor away with a strong and healthy heart!

If they’re able to accomplish all they hope to accomplish with Noor, it will be the 9th lifesaving heart surgery this trip.

Thanks for making this possible! More news to come…

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