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)

Failure Report: Year 2011 (Part 2 of 3)

May 22, 2012 by Jeremy · Comments Off 

The only bad failure
is the one from which we fail to learn.

Most organizations put a premium on celebrating successes at the end of every year—we certainly do!

But we also believe that we have a great deal to learn from our failures, so we endeavor to share them and the lessons we’ve learned in hopes of avoiding those same mistakes in the future.

When seeking to tackle intractable problems in an environment like Iraq, missed opportunities, missteps, false starts, and failures are par-for-the-course. There will be no improvement in the political situation in Iraq, in the economy, in healthcare, or in the pursuit of peace without a number of flops and failures along the journey. If we already knew what worked, we all would’ve implemented it by now and moved on.

The truth is, neither the American government nor the Iraqi—neither international nor local NGOs—truly know what works in Iraq. Most of us are making educated guesses and seeking to rightly adapt programs and principles that have proven successful at other times in Iraq or in other parts of the world.

From this point forward, I want to provide you with an annual (and sometimes real-time) assessment of our failures. In absence of such previous reports, I will use a few minutes to highlight our most meaningful setbacks, failures and lessons learned to date.

The three major failures of 2011, to be covered in this series of reports are:

Let’s get started…

2011 Failure #2: High-mortality Remedy Missions in February/March 2011
In February and March we ran two back-to-back Remedy Missions. One was our second in the southern city of Nasiriyah; the other was our second in the northern city of Sulaymaniyah.

Over the course of four weeks of surgery, mortality rates between the two cities reached 20.5% (7 deaths out of 34 operations).

A few of the losses were very surprising to many on the local and international team and had an extremely demoralizing effect on the team (particularly in Sulaymaniyah). The loss of momentum undoubtedly had a qualitative impact on the care provided as the trip progressed.

Some of the factors were anomalous, such as our lead surgeon contracting an infection in a wound on his ankle that resulted in impromptu surgery inside Iraq to save his leg. But other factors were almost certainly preventable, beginning with case selection and moving to fundamental deficiencies in the hospital equipment and protocols themselves.

A lack of warming blankets, portable oxygen units, a ready blood bank and several other fundamentals led to a less-than-ideal environment for the teaching of pediatric cardiac care. As a result of all these factors and the inherent difficulties of open-heart surgery, mortality rates in the Sulaymaniyah mission reached 22% (four deaths)—unacceptably high by any standard.

None of the deaths were considered “surgical” deaths, in the sense that the child did not die on the operating table, but rather in the post-operative intensive care unit, ward, or—in one case—in the car on the way home after being prematurely discharged by a local nurse the day the international team left the country.

Lessons Learned:

Our international team was very impressed with the local cardiologist for Remedy Mission II in the southern city of Nasiriyah. When it came time to schedule Remedy Mission III in that city, the decision was apparently made to not send a cardiologist on the mission, believing that the local team could handle it. This may have contributed to the imbalanced case selection in RM III and may have led to the situation in which three children died during the course of the mission.

Since that mission, an international cardiologist has been present on every Remedy Mission in an effort to help with case selection and create a balanced schedule of surgeries.

In Sulaymaniyah for Remedy Mission IV, case selection was complicated by the number of stakeholders in the mission. Children were formally and informally (that is, “politically”) put into the mission by the Preemptive Love Coalition, local cardiologists and surgeons, Kurdistan Save the Children (a local NGO), and the Health Directorate.

With regard to Yahya’s case, as described before, I can certainly say that my judgement was impaired when it came to case selection. I can speculate that other entities, in an effort to do right by the friends and patients on their lists, made similar errors in judgement that ultimately skewed the balance of the surgery schedule and its complexities.

When two children died in Sulaymaniyah after the international team left for the airport, we realized for the first time how ill-equipped the local team was to handle relatively simple post-operative care (one child had a positive prognosis in the ICU and the other was already out of ICU and recovering in the ward).

In our post-mission Impact Evaluation Report, we published the following statement:

Our post-mission conferences and deliberations on the matter resulted in the following protocols: 


1. A mandatory reduction in “RACHS-1 scores” presented to the international team by the local team


2. A mandatory international ICU team to be left behind after surgeries stop to stave off post-mission ICU deaths and errant discharges


3. A postponing of our next planned mission to the Sulaymaniyah Center for Heart Disease due to lack of preparation of materials, equipment, staff, and protocols

If you have any questions or concerns about this report, the decisions we’ve made, or the direction we are going, please email me at your convenience. I would love to hear from you.

In The News: “VP Mahdi Receives a global medical team that specializes in cardiovascular surgery”

February 19, 2011 by matt · Leave a Comment 

HE Vice President Abdul Mahdi recently held a press conference to share about the work of our coalition in southern Iraq!

PLC was privileged to be included in the work of our excellent partners at Living Light International, the Iraqi Ministry of Health, and the International Children’s Heart Foundation.

From one section of the article:

“The initiative has the full support of VP Mahdi ‘because of the exceptional circumstances during the recent decades, the country is in an urgent need to establish centers that offer advanced medical services for cases of incurable diseases. Procedures such as heart surgery for adults and children, and that Iraq is now suffering from a severe shortage in this area of medical expertise.

Whether in the number of medical centers or experienced medical staff in terms of which Iraq has only 22 doctors specialized in heart surgery, while it does not have surgeons specialized in children’s heart surgery.’”

He also said that this team has done a great humanitarian deed, and noted that the country suffers from a dilemma which is the birth of approximately eleven thousand new cases of children with heart disease and this calls for concerted efforts.

To read more from this article on our groundbreaking surgical mission, visit here.

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:

Anwar & Fatima Continue To Get Stronger!

December 21, 2010 by Cody · Comments Off 

It’s incredible to watch the journeys of these children and their families.

Most of the families come in individually carrying their children. The children usually stay in their beds with their mothers until they go in for their surgery.

Then the mother’s begin to grow closer as they wait for their children to come through the surgery and out of the ICU. When each child comes out, they celebrate and soon they’ll start walking their children or each other’s children down the hallway tightly gripping their hands.

Then one by one, each child gets stronger and soon the mothers stay in the room chatting while their children are running around on their own!

It’s a beautiful thing to be writing this post and be interrupted by the children we’ve grown to love so much.

Anwar and Fatima seem to grow stronger each day here in the hospital.

Today, Anwar and I colored. He drew pictures of palm trees and birds. I think we’re all counting down the days until we can leave the hospital!

Our Partners:

The Day Shams Received A Remedy and The Day She Died

December 19, 2010 by Cody · Comments Off 

This week, little five year old Shams Hadi died during her 12 hour operation. Shams was born with a combination of three congenital heart defects. By themselves, those three defects aren’t unusual among children here but none of the doctors or cardiologists had ever seen the combination of all three in one child.

In a developed country, Shams should have received surgery at three months. Her five year wait had simply done too much damage to her heart and lungs and by the time she saw the doctors that could cure her, it was too late.

The doctors were astonished she had lived this long.

But this week there was one last chance to fight for her life.

Before Remedy began, I thought about what I would write in this post. I came into these two weeks knowing that lives would be saved but also facing the sober reality that it might already be too late for some of the children we’ve met.

Even though these surgeries are just in time for some and too late for others, every one of these children is having their story rewritten.

Their stories all began with them being born in a country that didn’t have the doctors or hospitals that could save them from their disease. While there were remedies, they are all overseas and out of reach for all of them. Before now, these stories were ending with them still dying without any options.

Now, stories are being rewritten so that children in the north and in the south are beginning to see the remedy for the first time.

For many, it came just in time. For a few, their story ends with them not alone but instead surrounded by an entire team of doctors and nurses who gave it everything they had to save their life.

Shams’ story ended that way. It ended with her family being surrounded by a community who had grown to love them deeply.

Bringing remedy to Iraq doesn’t mean we make heart disease a thing of the past. It means that every child born with heart disease has access to the care that they need to fight it.

And that’s why, during days like today, we don’t lose hope. That’s why we honor Shams and her family by not giving up the hope that soon no Iraqi children will have to wait as long as she did to be treated.

Thanks for standing alongside us, in the joy and in the pain.

Thank you for continuing to rewrite the stories of children and families all across Iraq.

Our Partners:

Ritha Passes His Last Test Before Discharge & Baby Hassan Leaves ICU

December 17, 2010 by Cody · Comments Off 

Ritha had one assignment before he could go home. Blow up a latex glove, something that he could never have done before his surgery.

He kept blowing until the nurses had to stop him because it was about to POP!

With flying colors, Ritha passed his test and was sent home with his father!

More latex gloves are being passed out and one by one, kids are getting to go home!

The ICU nurses hated letting Hassan go but there was no more reason to keep him from moving to the ward with his mother. Today, Hassan was freed of monitors and tubes and carried out to be with his family!

Beds are losing their patients and families are winning back their children as this Remedy Mission nears its end!

Our Partners:

Beautiful Zahran Passes Through ICU!

December 16, 2010 by Cody · Comments Off 

Zahran decided she didn’t want to waste any time in the ICU after surgery!

A life-saving shunt was placed near her heart to increase the blood flow to her lungs. Before the surgery, she would struggle to breathe and the only thing her mother could do was to lift her legs up to ease the tension on her heart.

Today, her mother was able to carry her around the ICU before she was taken to the hospital ward to be with Fatima, Ritha, and Anwar!’

Our Partners:

Old Friends With New Hearts

December 15, 2010 by Cody · Comments Off 

Remember Ahmed, Noor, Hussein, and Riza from our first Remedy?

They remember you!

They were the group of four who traveled 600 kilometers north to receive their life-saving surgeries last August. Today, they only had to go down the road to show us how well they were all doing!

I didn’t even recognize any of them! Can you? Together, all four have gained a total of 33 pounds since their operation! All their parents said the same thing, “They won’t stop moving or eating!”

All signs that their body is getting stronger each day with their whole hearts.

Ahmed’s parents are doing great after their car accident. His father is back at work and his mom has the new full-time job of keeping up with Ahmed!

Riza’s mother said, “She’s a completely new child since the surgery. Before, she couldn’t stand or crawl but now she’s running everywhere!”

Hussein’s mother said, “He has a fresh face now! Before, he was tired and his heart would beat fast. Now he’s full of energy and his heart doesn’t hold him back.”

They thanked GOD for you today and they remembered how you made Remedy possible. They told me, “We’ll never forget what you did for us!”

Our Partners:

Gifting Justice To One Family At A Time: Zahran Goes to Surgery

December 14, 2010 by Cody · Comments Off 

“I can’t even imagine what it would be like to live in a country with good healthcare.”

Those were the words of a mother of two. Both were born with holes in their hearts. Her youngest, pictured above, is Zahran.

Zahran was diagnosed with heart disease when she was seven months old. A bleak diagnosis is all the doctor could offer them. That and the hope of treatment overseas.

Zahran’s mother kept repeating, “We could not find a remedy here in Iraq.”

What would be harder to hear as a parent? The fact that your child has an incurable disease or that there is a cure but it’s just out of your reach?

When there is a remedy and when it’s within reach of some and out of reach for others, just based on where they’re born, then it becomes an issue of justice, doesn’t it?

Like all issues of injustice, it requires people to come running and take action.

It requires people to do justice.

Today marks the 6th day of operations and Zahran’s set to be the 16th child to be given what could be a life-saving surgery!

Because of YOU, Zahran’s mother can start to imagine what it’s going to be like to live in a country where the healthcare is strong enough to save her children.

What better gift could you give this Christmas than justice?

Our Partners:

Hassan’s Surgery Was A Success!

December 13, 2010 by Cody · Comments Off 

Hassan’s surgery was a success!

When the doctors first looked at Hassan’s heart, he had multiple defects. When they were done with the operation, they had corrected each one of those defects and could only describe his heart as whole and complete!

Now Hassan is resting in the ICU, next to Ahmed, where the nurses continue to monitor how the rest of his body responds to his new and fully functioning heart.

Hassan’s wait for his surgery is finally over. Now all we’re waiting for is his return to his family.

 

Stay tuned…

Our Partners:

Next Page »