Day five in La Paz and we cannot believe the week is almost over!
These visits would not be possible without the generous donations we receive, so a big thank you to everyone who makes the healing of these little hearts possible.
A special thank you also goes to our global network of partners—Gift of Life Florida, Gift of Life Rotary District 7505, Gift of Life Metro New York, Gift of Life New Jersey, Gift of Life Long Island, Gift of Life Rotary District 7490, Gift of Life Central New York, Corazones Chiquitos, Hospital del Niño, and Herz Bewegt in Austria—for supplying the crucial equipment for this life-saving facility.
This morning we started out at Clinica Obrajes, where Anna Rothman, Dr. Abe Rothman’s wife, handed out toys to the kids who were either recovering or waiting on their surgery for that day.
Mrs. Rothman said she went to Target in America, bought toys for children of different ages, and brought them to La Paz in her luggage! Both Dr. Rothman and Mrs. Rothman grew up in Bolivia! Dr. Rothman is from Cochabamba while Mrs. Rothman is from right here in La Paz. A fun fact about Dr. Rothman is that he played soccer at the Estadio Hernando Siles (the stadium in La Paz) four times while growing up! Mrs. Rothman grew up in a neighborhood only a few blocks away from the hotel the team is staying at during this visit!
Making Rounds this Morning:
Mrs. Rothman giving a toy to Gael this morning in the cath lab. Gael had surgery yesterday and will be discharged today!
Aamir, his mother, and Dr. Rothman this morning.
Dr. Rothman told us that this morning while he was doing check-ups on the patients from yesterday, one of them was especially excited to see him. The child, Aamir, explained to Dr. Rothman how excited he was to finally be able to keep up with his peers and play sports and thanked Dr. Rothman with a big hug! Aamir was as happy as a clam when he left the clinic today.
Mrs. Rothman receiving a hug from Guadalupe after she gave Guadalupe a Hello Kitty coloring book!
Yahrel, his mother (left), and his aunt (right) this morning after receiving toys from Mrs. Rothman!
After we left the cath lab, we headed over to Hospital del Niño for the rest of the day! Since the blog is written everyday and done basically in real-time, something our readers may not realize is that we have a night shift!
The Night Shift Team:
The night shift crew, including Nurse Michaela Behrmann, Nurse Allison Reilly, and Doctor Jessie Acensio.
Every trip, we have night shift staff that stays through the night and into the morning. Usually the shifts are 7:30 AM to about 7:30 PM, then 7:30 PM to 7:30 AM. This means you have to be on the bus by 7:15 for both shifts! For the day shift they are usually waking up around 6 AM, and the night shift will sleep through most of the day to rest up for their shift later that night.
Dr. Jessica Asencio with some of the local night crew!
We had the pleasure of speaking with one of the night shift crew members this morning! Dr. Jessica Asencio is our night shift pediatric intensivist for this specific trip, while Dr. James Horstmann (also a pediatric intensivist) works during the day!
A pediatric intensivist is “both a pediatrician and a critical care doctor, an ICU doctor, which basically means that I take care of children who are at risk of high morbidity or at high risk of dying or are actively dying,” Asencio explained. A typical time for a pediatric intensivist to be in school (including undergraduate school) is fourteen years!
Dr. Asencio has been to La Paz three times with Gift of Life International since 2023. Even in this short amount of time Dr. Asencio has noticed that “the recognition by the nurses and physicians of different cardiac physiology, and how the post operative recuperation should look, has improved over time as they get more familiar with these surgeries and what they should look like. Like what is normal and what is completely abnormal and when we should be really worried.” Asencio continued, “I think the RNs, the nurses, have really learned how to be faster with their interventions and to know when they should be really worried. They are also learning to start identifying early warning signs of when kids are getting much sicker.”
To summarize, Dr. Asencio has seen a massive amount of improvement within the local staff in just one year due to their willingness to learn from our team, and then take what they have learned and quickly incorporate it into their daily routines!
We asked Dr. Asencio how she would compare night shift and day shift. She answered, “So, at night shift there are less people around. So sometimes it can feel a little less crowded, sometimes it can be a lot of fun! The difference is you just have to flip your schedule and sleep during the day, but night shift can be really fun.”
Finally, we asked, “Do you find it really hard to sleep during the day or are you used to it?” Asencio said, “Oh, I’m so used to it. I take some melatonin and some benadryl and I put my eye mask on. I’ve done twenty-four hour shifts, sometimes it’s a twelve hour day. Depending where you work it’s just very variable and different.” We are so grateful for our staff, both visiting and local, who are willing to work nights throughout our visits to aid in the process of healing little hearts around the world!
Nurses Michaela Behrmann and Allison Reilly with Santiago!
Nurses Allison Reilly and Michaela Behrmann with Adhemar!
Dr. Jessica Asencio, Michaela Behrmann, and Allison Reilly with some of the night shift team.
Fathers resting with their children through the night.
Michaela Behrmann (left) and Allison Reilly (right) helping Santiago walk around in the early morning.
Walking around is important for patients healing from heart surgery especially because it decreases the chance of blood clots and pneumonia, and allows the body to naturally stretch after laying down for so long.
Patient Updates:
As for updates on the two children who had surgery yesterday, they are doing great. Dante is eating pears and talking, and Leydi had become quite the chatterbox this evening! They are both well on the way to recovery.
Leydi holding Nurse Sarah Linton’s hand and waving to others in the room this evening.
Dante being fed by his mother this evening.
Tomorrow is our last day in Hospital del Niño for this training visit. We cannot believe it has been a week already!
The team is still going strong and is looking forward to a strong finish to our first week in the brand new pediatric cardiovascular ICU! Tomorrow, we will get an update on all of the children from Hospital del Niño as well as Clinica Obrajes and say our farewells at the end of the day.
Thanks for staying tuned and see you tomorrow for the final day of healing little hearts here in La Paz, Bolivia!
Rob Raylman is the Chief Executive officer for Gift of Life International. He assumed this role in 2008.
Rob is a life-long resident of New York State. He graduated Hobart College in 1984 with a BS in Political Science. Over the years, he worked for US Senator Alfonse D’Amato and held the position of Vice President for Browning-Ferris Industries (at the time, the second largest international solid waste company in the world). In 2008, Rob created the position of CEO for Gift of Life International. Since then, he was visited 38 countries on 5 continents to build the Gift of Life Global Network of 84 affiliates. During Rob’s tenure with Gift of Life International, 30 affiliates have been created while over 35,000 children have received care for their heart defects.
Rob focuses on strategically building bridges between Gift of Life programs, foreign Governments, Rotary Clubs and Districts, like-minded organizations and hospital administrations in order to address the Global Crisis of congenital heart defects.
