Day three has arrived and with it our training visit in Guyana continues to unfold, the impact of our work is already becoming clear. Gift of Life International is making strides toward creating lasting change in pediatric cardiac care.
Today, we witnessed the life-changing power of swift action and compassionate care as our team performed urgent surgeries on children whose lives depend on it. Among them is Genesis, a ten-month-old whose journey to recovery began the moment our dedicated team identified his critical need for surgery.
These moments remind us of the incredible difference we can make together—saving lives, restoring hope, and paving the way for a healthier future for children in need. Be sure to learn more about how we are healing little hearts in Guyana.
None of this would have been possible without the generous support from our donations. We are deeply grateful for your help in transforming the lives of these children.
We also want to extend our heartfelt thanks to our global network of partners and the Government of Guyana. Your steadfast commitment has been instrumental in paving the way to a sustainable pediatric cardiac program in Guyana. Together, we are building a brighter, healthier future for countless children in need!
A Life-Saving Operation & a New Beginning
Genesis (10 months old)
Genesis was our first surgery today!
Genesis is ten months old and was diagnosed with a large VSD one month ago when his mother noticed his shallow breathing, and he was not able to gain weight.
Genesis was not originally scheduled for surgery this week. The Gift of Life team screened him again yesterday, and realized he had developed severe heart failure due to his condition. Genesis needed surgery ASAP. His surgery was then rescheduled to today!
Genesis’ mother’s name is Sherone. Sherone is a twenty-one year old housewife and her husband is a twenty-four year old construction worker. Genesis and his family are from Kuru Kururu on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway, which is an hour and a half drive away from Georgetown.
Genesis has three brothers, all older than him. Sherone says that Genesis loves to climb and that to him everything he holds is a toy! We asked Sherone what her favorite thing about Genesis is. She said that “he’s strong and willing, always smiling.”
Pictured: Genesis and his mother, Sherone.
We also asked what Sherone hopes for the result of this surgery. She told us she hopes that it lets Genesis eat well and grow, because right now he cannot eat and he just vomits.
Thanks to the skilled, vigilant individuals working for Gift of Life, our team was able to catch this instance of heart failure quickly and act to get Genesis into surgery quickly.
Because of this, Genesis will be able to grow properly and live more of a normal life once he has healed from his procedure!
Nurse Charles Brown holds Genesis the night before his surgery.
Daniel’s Journey of Strength and Healing
Our next case today will be Daniel! Daniel is thirteen years old, has eight siblings, and is from Mahaicony, which is a two hour drive from Georgetown.
He is the third youngest out of nine children, his oldest sibling being twenty-eight and his youngest sibling being nine. Daniel’s mother’s name is Martina, and she is a forty-six year old housewife. Anthony, his father, is a thirty-nine year old fisherman. When Anthony leaves for work, he does not come back until the next day, and can do this for days at a time.
Pictured: Daniel and his mother, Martina.
Daniel’s road to recovery is a long one. He’s struggled his whole life with overexertion. He’s had trouble breathing his whole life, but his mom did not think anything of it until he got older and the problem continued to get worse.
Martina went to get him tested, but the doctors told her it was nothing. After another year and still no improvement, Martina took Daniel to get screened again. This time they realized that he had a large VSD and that he needed surgery.
Daniel’s favorite things to do are swim, play, fish, and wrestle and his favorite food is fried rice! When asked what her favorite thing about Daniel was, Martina said, “he’s my son and I love him very much and I pray he gets better and can live a normal life like everybody else.”
We then asked what she is most hopeful for as the result of this surgery and she explained, “I hope it brings joy to my heart and that we can go home together and live a normal life and I can see him be successful.”
Daniel’s surgery will repair his VSD as well as the double chamber right ventricle that this VSD has caused him to have. When your heart is forced to pump harder, it can create a build up of muscle in the right chamber of your heart, which then causes it to be divided into two because of the enlarged muscles that have clumped together. This creates a cycle that makes the heart pump harder to get past the blockage, but worsens the blockage because the heart pumping so hard makes the muscles grow more. So, this muscle needs to be removed!
Kari’s Story of Dedication & Hard Work
We had the privilege of interviewing nurse Kari Guffey today!
Kari currently lives in Fort Worth, Texas and said she has lived there the longest she’s ever lived anywhere in her life, so it is where she calls home. Growing up she moved around a lot because her dad was in the air force, then she moved in with her mother in middle school and stayed there until she graduated.
She then went to Texas for college and has been there ever since! Kari says family is the center of her universe. She lives now with her and her two daughters and says they are her world.
One daughter is twenty, the other seventeen. The twenty year old daughter, Broghan, came on her first Guyana trip with Kari in 2018! Broghan decided on that trip that she wants to be a nurse and is now going into her first year of nursing school at Baylor University! Broghan has joined Gift of Life and is here with her mother on this trip as well!
Broghan soothing Ronnie this morning.
Broghan with Rajdai blowing bubbles!
Kari has been a nurse for twenty seven years, and is currently a nurse practitioner teaching in a nurse practitioner program at Cook Children’s Medical Center. Kari got into global health because of Randa, a nurse she met at Cook in the ICU.
When Randa first started going on trips with Dr. Soto (our lead surgeon), she told Kari, “the goal overall for what he does and his mission in life is that he go places and not just do surgery, it’s also so you can build programs and lift people up.” Kari said, “that was what got me drawn into working with them.”
This trip to Guyana is Kari’s seventh here. “I came and I fell in love with the people here,” she told us.
Nurse Kari Guffey and her daughter Broghan helping Ronnie get comfortable.
Kari said that the hope and the goal is to open an ICU at Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation that is dedicated to children. Every couple of months Kari even meets with the local Guyanese nurses on Zoom to host education sessions throughout the year.
“It’s been this great transition into not only getting to come here and be there with them taking care of these hearts kids that would not otherwise get surgery, but also to know that eventually they’re gonna open their own place. They’re going to be able to take care of these super sick kids by themselves. So that’s why I do what I do, and especially why I do it here.”
Kari knows now that every year she will be attending these trips and she’s ecstatic about the visits and they never feel like a burden. Kari even worked on her doctoral work here in Guyana and did some of her homework here in the hospitals some nights on past trips!
Kari said the hardest part about working in Guyana is that the local nurses that are motivated and really care end up leaving because Guyanese nurses do not make as much as they can elsewhere and do not feel appreciated enough.
This is something GOLI is working to change with the help of nurses like Kari who will stand up for her Guyanese counterpart. Kari says she has made lifelong friendships thanks to these trips and whenever she’s back in Guyana it’s “a home feeling.”
Gift of Life International is astoundingly lucky to have a nurse like Kari on our team and we are so thankful for everything she does whether it be teaching in her hometown in Texas or here in Guyana!
She says Guyana has changed her life for the better and Gift of Life has molded the local and visiting team as a family and she could not be more grateful.
“The day that I am able to walk in and walk into the pediatric intensive care unit at Georgetown Public Hospital will be one of the best days of my life,” Kari told us at the end of her interview and it could not be more clear she is telling nothing but the truth.
We are hopeful that this goal of Kari’s and Gift of Life International is in reach thanks to all of the help from nurses like Kari on the visiting and local teams, our surgeons, cardiologists, echo techs, surgical techs, respiratory techs… The list goes on and on! This team along with our donors are why stories like Kari’s can be told.
We hope to continue helping make these differences in not only the children’s lives, but everyone else’s lives involved too!
This journey is not only about the individual lives we touch, but also about strengthening the local healthcare system to ensure that every child has the opportunity to grow up healthy and strong.
Every surgery, every lesson, and every act of compassion brings us one step closer to our goal: a future where no child in Guyana suffers from treatable heart conditions. The impact of our work is already visible, and we are more determined than ever to continue this vital endeavor.
Brenda Small is the Operations Consultant at Gift of Life International. She assumed this role in 2012.
Brenda was inspired to help children in need with heart disease after her third child was born with a complex heart defect and underwent successful open-heart surgery in her first year of life. Brenda learned of Gift of Life International in 2006 at which time she established Gift of Life Los Angeles where she holds the position of President. Between 2008 and 2012, Brenda volunteered her time to help with Gift of Life International in addition to running Gift of Life Los Angeles.
From 2012 to 2022, Brenda held the position of Director of Operations for Gift of Life International. Today, she continues this lifesaving work as Operations Consultant. Brenda also implemented the Nutritional Program in El Salvador in 2008 which has now provided nutritional support to more than 250 children and their families. Brenda has traveled with many of the Gift of Life training teams and witnessed these precious lives being saved.
