CONTACT US
CHECKOUT
Dua Looking a Little Unsure as She Waits to be Taken to Surgery this Morning
February 26, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
There’s not much more to say… this picture pretty much captures the uneasiness of this part of the journey. So much hope, fear, trust, and distrust is inherent to the moments right before surgery.
Thanks for joining Dua and her family as they entrust her into the hands of the Turkish team… from their perspective, this is the only chance she’s got. And thanks for all you’ve done to fund her surgery to get her to this point.
Dua’s name means prayer. So as we all remember Dua right now, we honor her parents and honor GOD by entrusting her life to GOD in prayer. More to come after she emerges from surgery…
Follow Dua Arif on Twitter: @Dua_Arif. Subscribe to Dua’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Dua’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
Total Correction for Muhammed!
February 25, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
Doctors accomplished the total correction they were hoping for with Muhammed. But he came to us with extremely high pulmonary pressure (in his lungs) so the coming days in ICU will be incredibly important.
Special thanks to Erica Fischer of EMF Images for partnering with us to save Muhammed’s life. At the suggestion of EMF’s Erica Fischer, Cameron and Ben (left) donated the sitting fee for their engagement pictures to the Preemptive Love Coalition to help fund Muhammed’s surgery. This ongoing partnership with EMF promises to save a lot of lives in Iraq and engage the hearts of many who thought they were just signing up for EMF’s great photography!
We know there are hundreds of you out there doing amazing stuff like this to save lives. Sometimes we just don’t know what you’re up to! Contact us.
Follow Muhammed Adnan on Twitter: @MuhammedAdnan. Subscribe to Muhammed’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Muhammed’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
Family Followthrough in Iraq: A Day of Post-operative Testing on Former Heart Surgery Recipients
February 22, 2010 by Jeremy · 1 Comment
Last week we were honored to have some of the excellent medical staff from the Anadolu Medical Center in Istanbul, Turkey make the trip to our office in Iraq to work with us on a few current and future initiatives. Among our agenda for the week:
The video above represents one of our agenda items for the week! In coming days we hope to post a photo narrative about the amazing alumni banquet and a story from local media about the Turkish delegation and PLC’s peacemaking agenda with them.
Don’t forget to push PLAY above to watch hope and life in motion!
Soma, Hamma, Danar, & Mohammed Leaving Iraq
January 6, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
Fearing they are headed into “enemy territory” as Kurds crossing into Turkey for much-needed heart surgery, Baby Soma, Hamma, Danar, & Mohammed ride the shuttle in Iraq to their airplane.
Follow Their Journeys:
Follow 7-month-old Soma on Twitter: @SomaSalah. Subscribe to Soma’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Soma’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
Follow 1-year-old Hamma on Twitter: @HammaDana. Subscribe to Hamma’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Hamma’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
Follow 9-month-old Mohammed on Twitter: @MohammedUmed. Subscribe to Mohammed’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Mohammed’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
Follow 3-year-old Danar on Twitter: @DanarSami. Subscribe to Danar’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Danar’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
Ahmad Out of Surgery! No More Blue Skin! All is Pink & Healthy!
February 17, 2009 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
Ahmed is out of surgery. His oxygen levels are already up by 25%. His future is hopefully less blue and a more healthy pink. His dad is crying tears of joy.
Dr. Çiçek at the Anadolu Sağlik Merkezi was clear that this is not a long-term, fully corrective solution; but this first surgery should allow him to finally live long enough to receive the staged surgeries he’ll need over the coming years to actually live a fully functional adult life.
We’ll update with more information as soon as we know it.
Follow Ahmad’s daily updates on Twitter or via his RSS feed.
Taban Comes Through Her Surgery!
February 16, 2009 by Ruth · Leave a Comment
Yesterday at 0900 Taban underwent a 3 hour surgery to close the hole in her heart! Our staff in Turkey emailed last night to say that the surgery went well. We called her family to let them know and they sounded so excited! We’ll update you when we hear more!
You can follow Taban’s progress on Twitter or via RSS here.
Follow us on Twitter
February 3, 2009 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
The Preemptive Love Coalition has been too busy saving lives to maximize our Twitter account. But we’re ready to dive in fully!
With regular tweets from around the world [Texas, California, Iraq, Istanbul & Ankara (Turkey)] plus travel tweets as we hit up Europe & the UK for more preemptive love for people of Iraq, we hope we can connect with you and learn from you in our collective effort to increase dialogue - and love - between international communities at odds.
Valentine’s Day Focus: The Great Eight (Ahmad’s Condition)
February 2, 2009 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
His great arteries are switched around and in the wrong places. He has two holes in the wall of his ventricle, a hole in the wall of his atrium. Effectively, his heart is a big balloon without properly functioning walls and chambers like yours.
This alone results in exhaustion, frequent fainting, and the blue discoloration in his lips, hands, and feet from a lack of oxygen.
You remember oxygen? That stuff that we pretty much need to live. Ahmad needs it too, but his body cannot process it correctly due to the holes in his little heart.
You can follow Ahmad’s progress on Twitter (twitter.com/ahmadbakhtiyar) or via RSS.
Giant Need
See Ahmad’s campaign page on our website to make a contribution to his surgery.
Small Voice
His brown-booted feet hung limply from the chair. Most children wouldn’t be able to resist swinging their suspended legs back and forth in the quiet room surrounded by the seven dwarfs’ familiar faces, the Kurdish curls presumably spelling the names of Dopey and Sneezy and the rest, scattered among painted forest animals on all four walls of Dr. Aso’s combined office, waiting room and examination room. When the doctor was ready, the practiced hands of his mother removed his jacket from his tiny body, his boots from little clubbed blue feet which matched his hands, tormented eyes watching her above his oxygen deprived lips the shade of blueberries.
The doctor’s eyes widened and his brow furrowed as he looked at the Echo, turned to us and said, “This is a very serious case.” When we asked if he was inoperable the doctor shook his head and simply said again, “It is a very serious case…. I don’t know.” Whether she understood English or not Ahmad’s mother read all our expressions easily. She tipped her head to the heavens, possibly to pray, and more practically to give her eyes the opportunity to swallow the tears threatening to escape.
After the picture we snapped of him standing in front of a Kurdish Snow White & the Seven Dwarves, he hid his little face in his mother’s leg and wiped tears from his eyes…
Liz searched her purse for the third time looking desperately for something to give this poor child. She hoped a matchbox car or at least some stickers had magically appeared since she’d last checked, but her hands came up empty again. Her mind slowly absorbed the fact that even if a toy might have brought a temporary smile to his sad eyes, it would do nothing for his frail body. Instead she prayed for the Turkish doctor who will soon undergo the difficult task of setting to rights all that is wrong in Ahmad’s little Iraqi frame.
We’d like to ask you to be a part of Ahmad’s transformation. Of course, these are hard times. But if you can, please consider sacrificing that Ahmad might live.
REAL-TIME UPDATES
CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE IN IRAQ
MORE ABOUT PLC
FUNDRAISING LINKS
