Surgery continues!

Zahraa, the first child to have surgery has headed home and is doing well!

And surgery continues. The surgeons are working on their tenth case today, and the kids recovering in the ICU and step down unit are doing well.

After playing soccer with these guys in the halls for a week, they now have had surgery and are recovering in the ICU.

Taking the Reigns

(Local nurses leaning the in's and out's)

Some of the coolest experiences that I've had here have come from watching the local medical staff and our international staff interact and learn from each other. ICHF's goal is to make themselves obsolete in whatever country they are trying to help. So instead of just dropping in, performing a few heart surgeries, and then leaving, they attempt every time to make the local team completely independent of ICHF. And since I have been here, this approach has been very evident. The local nurses, perfusionist, anesthesiologists, doctors, and surgeons have been the main performers of every operation, and form what I have heard about past operations, this is a major milestone for pediatric heart care in Iraq.

As one can imagine, when performing heart surgery, these moments of learning can become very tense, but when is heart surgery not intense. Allowing the Iraqi surgeons to take the reigns in these most tense situations, is what will continue to save the lives of children in Iraq, even while ICHF and PLC are not in country.

The medical professionals of Nasiriyah, Iraq are making huge advancements in the care of children with congenital heart disease every day while we're here, and this will soon continue to be the case after we're gone. By ICHF and these local medical professionals making the investment in time and money now, Iraqi children will be running and playing with healthy hearts in the future.

And so it begins!

The first child had surgery on Tuesday. Before the surgery began of course, she had the pre-surgery butterflies, and who wouldn't with syringes going around like these.

The surgery went well, and her mother was able to see her soon after, which is always a great moment to witness. This little girl was quite the princess as well. When one of the local nurses went to get her clothes, she said, "Get me some milk as well." Watching her recovery was a great sight, and now her personality is bigger and healthier than ever. Great little girl.

After hanging out in the OR and the ICU quite a lot, I went out to the ward area to see all the others in need of surgery. Some had driven or ridden a buses for long distances. I went around asking their stories and trying to get a glimpse of who they were. This picture is of the future soccer team of Iraq. Almost every boy says the first thing he wants to do after surgery is play soccer, and that definitely makes me happy. I went out with some of the guards the other day to get soccer balls to give to the boys and play with them in the hall. Some of the girls jump in as well. It's been good times, but there definitely is tension in the air for those awaiting surgery or possibly awaiting a longer waiting period. There a lot of kids in need and a limited amount of medical professionals. All in all, though, people are really hopeful and the surgeries have been successful. I'll give an update of the other surgeries and relationships made among staff soon.

Masalam,

Preston

Rockstar Much: (Traveling to Nasiriyah)

Arriving in Baghdad was definitely a surreal experience. I don't believe I realized exactly what I was doing until I got there, and let me tell you, Baghdad is much different from what it has been betrayed as. As an American, of course I have terrible preconceptions of the area, but the more I visit Iraq the more it breaks those preconceptions. The people in Baghdad were very nice and the city was actually quite beautiful. From what people say about the are, it was absolutely gorgeous before the start of the war. Anyway, on the plane ride to Baghdad, I sat next to a person who was probably the most hardcore/Bourne Supremacy/Bear Grylls fella I've ever seen. He was ex-British military and current security force for whoever hires him around the world. For the first hour of the flight I just stared at his hands knowing he could kill me with his pinky. But after striking up a conversation about weird accents and silly Americans (I wasn't going to dispute him) we had a pleasant time drinking coffee together. So, it was another lesson in not judging a book by its cover..... Anyway, I digress.

When we got to Iraq, after a lost baggage fiasco, we headed to Nasiriyah in a convoyish style, with Iraqi police in front and behind making people clear the rode for us. This was really cool at first, but after a while I just felt like a bully watching the guards points AK's at people to close. Were safe and nobody was being threatened. I think some people here are just a little to carless with their big guns, and that should definitely change. All this aside, the guards were still very appreciated and we arrived safely after an interesting bathroom stop.

We're staying in a really nice place, with Nasiriyan people that feed us the best food and are so nice. For our safety, supposedly, we have to stay inside the building with guards, but nonetheless we are having a great time with each other and our new, absolutely amazing Iraqi friends.

After arriving, the head hanchos got to work very quickly, assessing the soon to be patient's echocardiograms and discussing what approaches to take. This is the cardiologist Dr. Robert from Liverpool, and there are PICU nurses, a respiratory therapist, perfusionist, cardiac and OR nurses from all over the globe. It's really been spectacular to listen to these professionals talk about what they do and the different approaches their countries take towards healthcare. Sometimes I want to stop them mid-sentence and just say, "Sorry, but you're spectacular... now continue." All I'm saying is these children in need are getting world class care.

Finally, Don the perfusionist had a birthday celebration with cake and fire-code-breaking birthday toys brought from our new Iraqi friends.

Sorry if this seemed rushed, but I will have more on the surgeries that happened today tomorrow.

All the best,

Preston

A Beating Heart!

Today was a big day. I showed up at the hospital this morning with two other interns and Jeremy with the intention of seeing nine year old Navar have heart surgery. When we got there Navar was sitting in the room with her father. After just a few minutes of watching Navar and Lydia play patty cake, a head nurse came and asked for one of us to scrub up. Hastily I followed her back, and was quickly dressed in scrubs. I walked into the surgery room filled with triumphant opera music where Dr. Cicek, the head cardiac surgeon, was in the middle of the surgery of a teenage Arabic girl I didn't know. Before I looked over the barrier between the girl's face and her open chest Dr. Cicek asked if I had seen blood before. I said yes and hesitantly popped my head over for a look. The sight of an open chest with a beating heart inside is something to behold. It's one of those things you see yet take a second to comprehend. I watched as the calm yet assertive Dr. Cicek mended the young girls leaky mitral valve and hole between her atria. The whole thing was a bit of an adrenalin rush. I couldn't take my eyes away. After and hour and a half or so, I walked out and Alex and Lydia were asked to observe Navar's Surgery.

Navar's surgery took four and a half hours. I went back with her father after the surgery to hear what happened and Dr. Cicek with a bit of a dazed/relieved/excited look said the surgery was successful but that the problem she was diagnosed with was incorrect. Instead of Tetralogy of Fallot she had Double Outlet Right Ventricle (DORV) with an eight centimeter hole in her heart. This turns out to be one of the most complicated heart surgeries possible, and Dr. Cicek performed it with a successful outcome. It's amazing! I've truly seen God in these last few moments. Navar still has a lot of recovery to go through, but with more time, thoughts, and prayers hopefully she will be running around with a healthy heart. Leah, Chro, and Jeen still have to receive heart surgery, and hopefully they will receive it within the next few days.

Thanks everyone for all the support in helping me come to Iraq. We have one more day and then we fly out. This experience has been amazing, and it has culminated in a little girl receiving major heart surgery. If you supported me thanks, and if you've supported the kids if PLC or plan to thanks even more.

All the best,

Preston

http://preemptivelove.org

P.S. I should have more pictures and videos up soon:)

Hopeful Days in Turkey

So, I’m sitting the the airport of Sulaimania, waiting for our delayed flight. It’s a great time to catch everyone up.

This past Friday we had our banquet for all of the kids that PLC assisted in going to surgery this past year. All the families and the kids especially had a great time. The whole banquet was a culmination of what I’ve been working on this whole summer. All the kids were there, and they were running around with their healthier hearts while we played with them. Our friend and local Klash maker Aram was there to celebrate with us as well. Watching everyone interact was a great sight to see.

Now i’m headed to Turkey with all the interns and four children with their families who are getting surgery this coming week. Navar (nine year old girl), Chro (baby girl), Leah (infant girl), and Jeen (14 year old girl) are all about to have surgery. Hopefully, I’ll be watching these same kids run around at the banquet next year. This trip is also a bit of hope in the midst of a week of many problems and tragedy. This past Thursday there was an awful fire at a hotel two buildings down from our office. Thirty people died, most of them from smoke inhalation. A few of the interns photographed the horrific seen. There has also been a lot of politically influenced problems that have hindered PLC’s Remedy Mission (30 surgeries in two weeks in Iraq).

So knowing these four children here in this airport are headed to surgery is definitely a ray of light. Check out children that PLC is trying to help and send help more children to surgery:

http://preemptivelove.org

http://preemptivelove.org/remedy

(Sorry there are no pictures. With our internet in Turkey, we can’t upload any without paying more)

I'm an Iraqi with an American mind."

So, meeting people that defy my stereotypes and challenge my commonly held beliefs has become a common occurrence here in Iraq. One powerful example of this occurred today when I met an Iranian man named Sirwan. He’s been a friend of a fellow intern here, Ben, for a while now, and Ben invited me today to go eat lunch with them. Sirwan is a Iranian Kurdish man who makes his living as a journalist, a profession that can get him killed in his home country. He’s quite the character. With an aggressively happy personality and an intense eagerness to learn, he was very interesting to listen to and talk with. We sat down to eat at one of our favorite restaurants here in Sulaimania, and I started asking him what it was like growing up in Iran. His replies were unexpected. He said that in Iran the government goes to great lengths to paint Americans as evil, non-human beings. As he explained, from an early age children are taught that Americans are evil and should be destroyed. During the elementary years of school, they are taught that Americans are like wild animals with sharp teeth, horns, and talons. After moving to the Kurdish part of Iraq and meeting new friends like Ben, however, he says that his perceptions have been changed and that the virus of his preconceived indoctrinations have been “cured” by the antivirus of free-thinking. Ben gave him a bible because Sirwan wanted to read about the Jesus that he wasn’t allowed to understand as a child, and he says that the lessons he was taught as a child are completely different. In his Iran, Jesus is a violent man of evil.

While listening to Sirwan speak, I couldn’t help but reexamine my own preconceptions of the Middle East, and Iranians especially, coming into this internship. I mean, have I ever heard anything positive about Iranians in the news that cast them as actual humans instead of government pawns? No. Have I ever attempted to understand the Quran? No. But now I’ve met a man who defies all my stereotypes and has taken it upon himself to be what he calls a “free-thinker” and accept people.

Another acquaintance within the last couple of days occurred while I was watching the World Cup. In Sarchinar Park, I sat on a stone bench next to an Iraqi man who went by the name of “Billy” (a nickname he was told to use instead of his actual name). After noticing his exceptional English, we stuck up a conversation, and it did not take long before we got on the topic of his work with the U.S. Army. Apparently he does translation for some pretty amazing American military men. His story was great, and I respect what he does along with every military man. I couldn’t get past the way he talked about his own country, however. As he explained, he’s an Iraqi with an American mind, and his assumption seemed to be that everything “American” is right. At one point he brought up something about Iraqi culture and in less tactful language said that he could care less about his own culture. I know that this is one man and one opinion, but the one-sided words coming out of his mouth just seemed so much more... wrong. If I would have heard those things from an American friend, they would not have seemed nearly as unusual, but coming from him they cast the whole American pride thing into a new light. Our conversation made me question exactly how much our beliefs are based on what makes us feel validated of valued. How far can our search for validation take us before we lose sight of reality?

On a bit of a different note, a few people that I’m looking forward to meeting soon are the kids that PLC has sent to surgery in the past year. The banquet for the PLC kids that I’ve been a part of planning is coming up this Friday, and I can’t wait. I know seeing them will be a bit of a world-view changer as well. Thank you everyone for supporting these children and allowing me to have this experience with them in Iraq.

Best wishes,

Preston