Pediatric Heart Surgery in Uganda

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Night 2 in Mulago Hospital (officially night 3... I think.. time gets a bit confusing...) and its 2:30 in the morning, the Ugandan / American / English team have successfully performed a total os 3 open heart surgeries!! The Ugandan nurses have received all of 3 post patients with amazing independence and professionalism. Harriet, who is now post op day 2, is looking wonderful and resting comfortably. Johnson is our 25 year old and Abdul is our 6 both post op ASD patch closure were done yesterday (Dec 2nd) and are doing remarkably well.
Amy Sims has been our fearless leader all night. Katie and I have been working with the Ugandan nurses (who haven't seemed to need much help!) We discussed med math and to our surprise the Ugandan nurses remember a lot for our teaching in February. The entire Ugandan team is fully engaged with each patient and constantly providing input and asking questions. I believe we are all learning a great deal from this experience, Ugandan and US team alike.

-Amy P & the Night Shift Crew (Amy Sims & Katie)

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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.