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Ahmed’s Surgery a Complete Success; Heart Stronger Than Ever Thanks to You!
August 21, 2010 by Cody · Leave a Comment
Ahmed is prepared for surgery with our visiting cardiologist, Dr. Sri Rao of the International Children’s Heart Foundation. Photo by Heber Vega
Ahmed’s 5 year battle to obtain his much-needed heart surgery is now a thing of the past after a 5.5 hour surgery that successfully corrected all five major heart defects! He’s now resting in ICU with his uncle who hasn’t left his side since his parents were seriously injured in a car crash this past week. If you haven’t read Ahmed’s story be sure to read it here.
We’ve all fallen in love with Ahmed, there’s no denying it. Today our joy is through the roof as we celebrate Ahmed’s life and the good news that both of his parents are recovering with him a few hours away in their home city!
Ahmed’s heart can now give his body everything it needs to run, jump, and shout for joy, thanks to you!
It’s always an exciting journey to the hospital each morning to see our kids. But tomorrow morning the trip is going to be special.
We can’t wait to see our friend, Ahmed.
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.
Ahmed’s 5 Hour Surgery Is In Progress!
August 20, 2010 by Cody · Leave a Comment
Photo by Jon Vidar
Ahmed spent his last two days waiting patiently for his surgery, playing with film-maker Ricky Norris, racing around the hospital floor on top of the hospital rolley-carts, and watching cartoons on Heber Vega’s laptop.
You may recall that Ahmed’s parents were in a tragic car accident on their way to our Remedy Mission just a few days ago. His uncle actually ensured that Ahmed made it here and did not miss his chance at life. If you haven’t read Ahmed’s story be sure to read it here!
We received the great news from his uncle that Ahmed’s parents are improving but still in the hospital in Nasariya. They called repeatedly today to speak with their son and remind him of how much they love him. We feel the same way!
Photo by Heber Vega
Ahmed is now in the 3rd hour of his surgery and it’s expected to last 2 more hours. It is also after midnight here in Iraq! Who does surgery after midnight? We are so grateful to Dr. William Novick and his team from the International Children’s Heart Foundation. Ahmed’s case is one of the most complicated the doctors have seen this week so they’ve committed their entire night to making the corrections Ahmed’s heart needs to keep up with this little boy who clearly loves to be active!
Are you a friend on Facebook (<-- click) or Twitter (<--click)? That's the most real-time way to keep up with news from Remedy Mission in Iraq.
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.
There is a Tribal Leader from Basra Talking about You
August 19, 2010 by Cody · Leave a Comment
Photo by Heber Vega
People often ask us if we’re doctors.
During the day we may be in scrubs going from bed to bed in the Intensive Care Unit checking on our kids. Other times we might be in the operating room learning more about congenital heart defects. But the obvious answer is “no” - we most definitely are not doctors. We don’t know how operate a heart-and-lung bypass machine and we don’t know how to repair a broken heart.
What we do know how to do - and what we’re constantly striving to do better - is love.
While the doctors are upstairs in the operating room masterfully mending our kids’ hearts, we’re downstairs right below them being made strong by the waiting families.
Today, I was made stronger by a sheikh from Basra who drove over 600 miles to have his grandson, Hussein, operated on through our Remedy Mission. We talked about our home towns, our families, and our work. He told me about Basra and the incredible history behind it. He told me what he loved about it and how strong and full of hope the people still are. To be honest, all I had ever known of his home was what I saw on television.
Photo by Heber Vega
Laying right next to the Sheikh was his grandson with a newly repaired heart, thanks to you.
So I told him about you. I told him what you’re standing for by supporting Remedy Mission and how we aren’t just out to mend physical hearts; we’re out to mend whole communities and reconcile people in conflict. We talked about ways to take steps towards creating postures of preemptive love in Basra and across Iraq. We talked about peace and what it will be like one day to have no more heart disease or war. We both longed for that day today.
At the end of our time he smiled and told me that he is the sheikh and head leader of his entire tribe in Basra. Thousands are under his leadership. He said, “When I am sad, my people are sad. When I am happy, they are happy. Because of today, I am going back to Basra happy. I am going back bringing a message of peace.”
On behalf of all of us at Preemptive Love, thank you for changing the life of a sheikh in Basra and for helping save the life of his grandson, whom he dearly loves. Today, he called you “messengers of peace”. We just thought you should know!
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.
Rozha’s Smile Lights Up the Room 24 Hours After Surgery
August 18, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
Less than 24 hours after surgery Rozha is up walking around and discharged from ICU!
http://preemptivelove.org/blog/
Photo of the (Yester)Day: Nivar Recovers in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit
July 22, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
While the risk of death and attendant complication associated with Nivar’s open heart surgery was estimated to be just 5%, there is still something that inside of us that say the human body should not be opened up and closed again; something that says that is excessively dangerous and causes us to hold our breath in anticipation of good news.
And that’s why this photo is so poignant. There is nothing as satisfying as hearing that your little one is out of surgery and that all went well and there is nothing like seeing her alive and well - all put back together again. Well, nothing except hearing that she’s being taken off of all the machinery and living entirely on her own… but that story is yet to come!
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This little boy, Yahya, still needs a few thousand dollars to cover the costs of surgery and travel from Iraq to Istanbul so he can experience the same life-change you’ve given Nivar. To take Yahya out of line and get him to Istanbul for surgery, please enter the amount of your choice below and click “Donate Now!”. |
Follow Nivar on Twitter: @NivarMohammed. Subscribe to Nivar’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Nivar’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
Nivar Leaves for Surgery Tonight!
July 17, 2010 by Preston · Leave a Comment
Thanks to your amazing support, Nivar is leaving for heart surgery in Turkey tonight at 6 p.m. (Central). Nivar has a four-fold set of heart conditions called Tetralogy of Fallot.
While this is one of the most common forms of congenital heart disease, it is also one of the most debilitating. The hole and restricted blood flow in her heart keep her from playing with all of her friends. Nivar’s birthday is soon approaching, and she also is the proud new sister of a little baby girl. With this surgery, she can enjoy her birthday and new baby sister even more.
Follow Nivar on Twitter: @NivarMohammed. Subscribe to Nivar’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Nivar’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
Jeen Mustafa is Leaving for Surgery on Saturday
July 15, 2010 by Ben · Leave a Comment
Meet Jeen Mustafa. Jeen is currently living with Atrial Septal Defect (ASD), which affects the two upper chambers of the heart. Her disease creates a hole between the two upper chambers of the heart, mixing the blood going to the lungs with the blood going to the rest of the body. Because of your financial help, Jeen is leaving for surgery on July 18 along with 4 other children with congenital heart disease. Jeen will be receiving a non-invasive surgery through catheter, which also significantly reduces the danger of the procedure.
Follow Jeen on Twitter: @JeenMustafa. Subscribe to Jeen’s updates via RSS HERE.
Two Weeks Away From Surgery, Leah Continues to Grow and Develop
July 5, 2010 by Esther · Leave a Comment
from Preemptive Love on Vimeo.
In a week and a half Baby Leah goes to surgery!
Those words bring so much joy to my heart because they signify the new life that successful heart surgery will give Leah.
Since the last time that we visited Leah, she has continued to grow and develop – rolling over with ease, bouncing off her mother’s lap, waving at others and attempting to hold herself up on her hands and knees.
This little girl, whose birth defects have threatened to steal her life away, now has the opportunity to have that life transformed because of the combined efforts of Turkish heart surgeons working to restore peace with their set of surgical tools along with the willingness of donors like you.
Leah is one of 4 Iraqi children that will be traveling to Turkey on July 18 for heart surgery because of your involvement and desire to combat the unnecessary deaths of children born with congenital heart disease.
Click HERE to follow Leah Ibrahim on Twitter as she gets ready for surgery.
A Visit to A Local Doctor is Sobering but Encouraging to a PLC Summer Intern
June 15, 2010 by Alex · Leave a Comment
The past few days of my internship have placed me in the offices of Dr. Aso Faeq. As a partner to the Preemptive Love and an invaluable member of this Coalition, Dr. Aso is the only pediatric cardiologist serving the northern region of Iraq. And what sets him apart even further is that as an intreventional cardiologist – a heart doctor certified to not only diagnose cardiac problems but also perform simple surgical procedures – Dr. Faeq is fullfilling a role that is even more rare throughout the country.
Given his position, Dr. Aso would already have an extensive patient list. But considering the high rate of congenital heart disease in Iraq, it was not surprising to find his waiting room overflowing with mothers and fathers holding and comforting their sick kids, whispering assurance and love into their ears.
Our visits to his office are heartbreaking, humbling, challenging and encouraging.
It is heartbreaking to realize how rampant congenital heart disease is in Iraq. The entire time Dr. Aso met with me and other interns he was seeing patient after patient and diagnosing congenital heart defects such as atrial septal defect, transposition of the great arteries, Tetrology of Fallot and others. It is heartbreaking to know that the best course Dr. Aso can pursue is often a procedure performed to extend a child’s life only a few years so that they can wait for an improbable surgery down the line.
It is humbling to see how Dr. Aso makes these diagnoses using very limited, mostly-donated equipment in a public hospital with little institutional support. It is humbling to see him treat more patients in a day than many doctors see in a week, without any extra compensation, with joy and a smile on his face.
It is challenging, as a student pursuing a career in medicine, to see such stark disparities in healthcare between western countries and that of the region where much of “western” medicine originated. It is challenging to hear this brilliant doctor humbly state that all he wants is the opportunity for more quality training in order to further treat his patients, while simultaneously seeing that desire denied. Because of geopolitical fears and misconceptions associated with Iraqis, Dr. Aso was recently refused a visa to attend a training meeting of the Association for European Pediatric Cardiology, of which he is a member.
And although I’ve left Dr. Aso’s office heartbroken, humbled or challenged, I always leave his office encouraged as well. It is encouraging to know that through his partnership with the Preemptive Love Coalition Dr. Aso can send out families from his office, giving their children a chance at surgery. It is encouraging to realize that even though Dr. Aso may be denied visas to travel and get more advanced training, we can bring the training to him and other local doctors with Remedy Missions. Most of all, it is encouraging to know that “long-term, local solutions” isn’t just a slogan. Long-term, local solutions are people – people like Dr. Aso.
Pondering Available Responses to Genocide and Its Effects
June 10, 2010 by Lauren · Leave a Comment
On March 16, 1988, toward the end of the Iran-Iraq War, the Iraqi military used chemical weapons on the city of Halabja. The attack was meant to erase all Halabja inhabitants off the map: plants, animals and humans. A total of 5,000 men, women and children were killed in the attack, and of the survivors, 11,000 were injured.
As we walked through the memorial, I recalled an ancient Hebrew poem:
By the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept
When we remembered Zion.
There on the poplars we hung our harps,
For there our captors asked us for songs,
Our tormentors demanded songs of joy
The poem is about the Hebrew people who were exiled in the land of Babylon, present-day Iraq. They cried because they missed their homeland; they cried because they were expected to be happy and play songs for their captors. But they couldn’t.
I wonder if that’s how the survivors of Halabja felt. They didn’t want to sing songs. Their families died. Their neighbors died. Like the Hebrews, some Iraqis living in Halabja had to leave their land and flee to Iran.
I’m trying to make sense of what happened in Halabja. I’m trying to make it mean something to me. We are bombarded with images of war and genocide on the news, making it easy to forget that Halabja was a reality. We forget that congenital birth defects caused by this and similar chemical attacks are a reality.
O, Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is he who repays you
for what you have done to us
I hate how the Hebrew poem ends. Instead of offering hope for a people, it speaks of revenge against the tormentors. Hate is so easy. It is our job to choose not to hate.
Many children here need surgeries and medication and therapy to address their congenital birth defects. And some of them probably need this help as a result of the chemical attacks in Halabja and other attacks similar to it. As a newcomer and summer intern, I love that the Preemptive Love Coalition response to genocide is not to seek revenge on behalf of victims, but to work alongside Iraqis to bring healing to suffering children.
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Mohammad’s family had $6,000 in-hand on loan from a friend to get their son the heart surgery he needed. Then the creditor decided to build a new house and took his loan back before Mohammad received surgery. Now the family is trying to find surgical solutions. Donate the amount of your choice by entering it in the field below to help send Mohammad to life-saving heart surgery. |
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