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Progress continues following the December, 2022, mission led by Dr. Dominique Metras of France. Since the early years of the Surgeons of Hope program, Dr. Metras has led missons to bring life-altering surgery and training to various countries in Central and South America in partnership with Surgeons of Hope.
In Paraguay, nine children received corrective heart operations for congenital heart defects. The surgeries were performed at the Hospital Pediatrico ‘Ninos de Acosta Nu” in San Lorenzo.
The surgical training team included two surgeons, a cardiologist, an anesthesiologist, a perfusionist and three ICU nurses. Two Surgeons of Hope representatives attended to observe and meet with officials.
Little Mia (7) came to the hospital with a congenital heart defect, what we call a murmur, diagnosed in December. She was growing weaker each month. Her mother traveled the 200 kilometers with Mia from home to the hospital for several diagnostic visits, care that was not available in their hometown of Pilar. On July 4, she received her operation at Acosta Nu, and is now at home, recovering well.
Also suffering from a murmur detected at birth, little Lucia (8) has received her surgery in late July at the same hospital Her surgery went well, and she is also recovering, soon to go home to her four brothers.
During the Surgeons of Hope mission, the local team at the hospital in Paraguay participated in collaborative professional training in the complex surgery as well as techniques for administering anesthesia, promoting the goal of faster recovery after surgery.
Coming up soon is a mission to Costa Rica with a smaller team to collaborate with the National University of Costa Rica. We are helping to develop a 3-D modeling program for children preparing for heart surgery. Using the 3-D approach, doctors will be able to see each patient’s interior anatomy and be better able to plan the surgical strategy to reduce risk and result in vastly improved outcomes.
Surgeons of Hope remains committed to advancing global health, bringing the latest technology and training to countries, building connections to create a network of Latin American hospitals supporting this progress.
Our GlobalGiving donors are essential partners in these advances. Your donations have been a consistent part of our program whether they are supporting the purchase of a small quantity of supplies or going toward the purchase of equipment, they all create good outcomes for the children. For your support, we remain grateful.
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Travel concerns finally eased in late 2022 as the pandemic waned, allowing Surgeons of Hope to resume missions. We set to work organizing two surgical missions and one training exchange, all partially supported by welcome donations from our GlobalGiving friends. We thank you all for contributing toward our progress.
Mexico
We sponsored a critical mission to Mexico with a small team to conduct an assessment at the Hospital Infantil de Mexico Federico Gomez. The hospital’s rich history and dedicated staff were an inspiration to our team. We had been asked to assess their program in view of a higher-than-average pediatric mortality rate at that hospital.
The SoH mission was headed by the renowned heart specialist Dr. Antonio Cabrera, and his associates from Salt Lake City, Utah. Richard Duron and Carolina Churchill, representatives from SOH, were also present for the assessment.
The mission proved to be especially significant as the visiting surgeon was asked to scrub into a life-saving surgery to correct a Tetralogy of Fallot. Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the second leading cause of death among children under five years of age in Mexico.
Paraguay
In December we completed our first full surgical mission after the pandemic. Led by Dr. Dominique Metras, a team of medical professionals from France performed corrective surgeries for congenital heart defects on nine children at the Hospital Pediátrico "Niños de Acosta Ñu" in San Lorenzo. The team of two surgeons, a cardiologist, an anesthesiologist, a perfusionist, and three ICU nurses, collaborated with the hospital's cardiology team. The two Surgeons of Hope representatives who accompanied the team shared administrative expertise with their in-country partners, including representatives from the Ministry of Health. All surgeries were successful and the children are now thriving at home.
Training in Spain
Four nurses from Hospital Pediátrico Niños de Acosta Ñu in Paraguay received training. They were able to acquire best practices and knowledge in post-operative care for children who have undergone open heart surgery. The nurses participated in a one-month exchange training program at the Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón.
Specialized care for children who have undergone heart surgery is extremely important. Children need to be monitored closely in the intensive care unit (ICU) for several days or even weeks. During this time, they may require mechanical ventilation, medications to support their heart function and blood pressure, and careful monitoring of their fluid and electrolyte balance.
In addition to the hands-on critical care training, Surgeons of Hope arranged for the nurses to meet with a representative from Menudos Corazones, a non-profit organization based in Madrid, that provides a variety of resources, including peer support, educational materials, and advocacy initiatives to families with children who have congenital heart defects. The staff at Menudos Corazones provided the nurses with crucial resources for families in Paraguay to understand how to care for their children as they recuperate.
All of this progress would be impossible without the continuing support of you and our GlobalGiving partners who believe in what we are accomplishing, mission by mission, training by training. Thanks to your enduring generosity, Surgeons of Hope is fulfilling our vision of sustainable progress.
Since our last report, our partners in Costa Rica and Paraguay have been providing life-saving interventions to hundreds of children. In Paraguay, one little girl received a much needed heart. Heart transplants are risky, especially for children and it's an amazing feat when it is done succesfully. A 5 year-old girl received a heart just in time and can now move forward to enjoy her childhood. These types of miraculous interventions could not be realized without the help we received from donors like you and our dedicated teams of health care professionals who are among the best in world.
With your ongoing support, Surgeons of Hope is able to send them on missions of mercy to the areas we serve. Through their work, they can transform a hopeless situation into one of joy and triumph.While Nahaira is one of the lucky ones, there are there are currently families in Central and South America who wait in quiet desperation for a life saving intervention to save their child’s life.
Below is a link to the story of the girl and her new beating heart.
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Surgeons of Hope reports issued during the two years of the COVID-19 pandemic have detailed how we dealt with travel limitations that curtailed medical missions to the countries we serve in Latin America. In the interim we stepped up our training opportunities for local medical teams, we provided supplies where needed and we implemented telehealth procedures to support our surgical teams with consultation.
But now we celebrate that we have recently completed our first in-person mission in two years by visiting Mexico City. We were invited to perform a program assessment at the Hospital Infantil de Mexico Federico Gomez, one of Mexico’s oldest and largest pediatric hospitals. The mission occurred between July 19 and 22, and the outcome could only be termed “successful.”
In Mexico, congenital heart disease is the second leading cause of death among children under five years of age. The rate in that country is higher than the world’s average, showing 8-12 incidences per 1,000 live births. The waiting list for corrective surgery is outpacing the availability of skilled medical teams. The longer a child must wait, the more severe the condition becomes and the weaker the child becomes. The result is higher mortality.
Our five-member team consisted of SoH board members and a medical team of volunteers from Utah’s Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital. The team thoroughly reviewed the hospital’s intensive care units, measured infection control and epidemiology procedures, joined case discussions, supported the surgical team and led a televised medical symposium.
With your support Surgeons of Hope will continue to expand our work in Latin America and strengthen struggling pediatric programs. We are organizing 2-3 more missions before the end of 2022 to Costa Rica, Paraguay and hopefully again to Mexico.
Will you continue to help us save one more? Your GlobalGiving donation will provide care where it is most needed. This is how the world’s child mortality rate comes down, a case at a time, as your donation joins with our committed GlobalGiving community to make it happen.
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Having assessed that the medical teams at Latin American hospitals strengthened by our previous GlobalGiving projects were secure in their capacity for providing heart care for infants and children, Surgeons of Hope has begun our next phase with a new GlobalGiving project initiative. In accordance with our vision for creating a network of pediatric heart care throughout Latin America, and mindful of pandemic travel restrictions, we turned our attention to Paraguay and the Department of Pediatric Cardiology at Hospital Pediátrico Niños de Acosta Ñu in San Lorenzo, Paraguay.
Paraguay offered the perfect next step in the Surgeons of Hope program of collaboration, leading us to accept the invitation of Dr. Nancy Garay, Chief of the hospital’s pediatric cardiac department. We found a gifted medical staff and have benefited from regular reports furnished by Dr. Chantal Real. Her reports demonstrate that our intense collaborative efforts are working well and that children are receiving developed-world medical care close to home.
Your GlobalGiving donation, large or small, has supported many successful surgeries and valuable collaborations in recent months, including diagnosis and consultations.
A newborn baby, 15 days of age, suffered from major arteries needing relocation. The complex operation in January was a complete success. The baby’s mother, Mariela, took her baby home to grow into a normal childhood.
Patients helped in January and experiencing no complications ranged from 15 days to 23 years of age. More patients followed whose records indicate representative ages of from 3 to 7 years, many benefiting from catheterization procedures to correct abnormalities. All of the children are home now.
To continue amazing progress in Paraguay, we need to provide supplies in the form of the usual small but essential items such as surgical masks. Dr. Real has also let us know of the critical need for devices to deliver intravenous medicines. As you can imagine, supplies dwindle rapidly.
We remain grateful to you, our loyal GlobalGiving donors. We count on your help to continue our progress toward realizing the life-altering future envisioned by Surgeons of Hope.
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
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