Pediatric Heart Surgery in Uganda: Day 5

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Day 5

Bill, perfusionist Extraordinaire, hard as work.

Phew! Now that everyone has completed their CHEX from Uganda, we are all breathing a bit easier.

Recovery is going amazingly well, the Ugandan nursing team is AMAZING and have come so far over the years. So much fun to watch them work so independantly!

Tomorrow is a "day of Rest", no cases scheduled but some fun day trips have been planned, and the SP dinner in the evening. Hard to believe we've been here 5 days!

More tomorrow!

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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.