Pediatric Heart Surgery in Uganda: Inaugural Blog Posting

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Inaugural Blog Posting

We're now on our fifth day in Uganda on the most recent of CNMC's trip to work with Samaritan's Purse Children's Heart Project. We'll be posting updates from this trip (and hopefully a summary of past activities as well) in the coming days. Keep checking back for updates.

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Uganda Heart Project Mission

Our mission is to save the lives of children with life threatening heart conditions. Congenital heart defects are the most common birth defect, occurring in 1% of all births. With surgery or catheterization, most have a normal life expectancy and quality of life. Without treatment, they will become progressively sicker; many will die before age 5.

With the support of several donors including the Larry King Cardiac Foundation, Samaritan’s Purse Children’s Heart Project and Gift of Life International, Dr. Craig Sable has formed a strong collaboration with Mulago Hospital, the main teaching hospital in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, where the first open heart surgeries were performed in 2007. Over 50 children have traveled to North America for procedures. Unfortunately, there are over 5,000 children in Uganda and over 5 million world-wide who have treatable heart conditions but no access to care. While expensive, in almost all cases the result is a healthy child with a full life expectancy and no need for medications.

Our goal is to fund care of these children in the U.S., continue to lead missions to Uganda, and ultimately build a sustainable cardiac surgery center in Kampala through technology and ongoing education. No child with a treatable heart condition should die because of a lack of access to care.

The families and children are so thankful for the work we are doing and their gratitude is the best reward we can possibly receive. A parent or legal guardian of each of the children shown on this blog has signed a legal consent form that authorizes us to be able to display their pictures and names on this blog and other internet sites.