As the fourth day dawns on our training visit in Guyana, the transformative work of Gift of Life International continues to bring hope and healing to children in need.
With just a few surgeries left, our dedicated team of medical professionals is making every moment count, ensuring that each child receives the critical care they deserve. We’ve got two more cases today, then one tomorrow and that will conclude most of our team’s visit to Guyana this time around.
Each surgery performed is not just a medical procedure; it’s a step toward a healthier future, both for these children and for the healthcare system in Guyana.
As we near the end of this week’s visit, the stories of resilience, dedication, and hope continue to inspire us and reinforce our commitment to building a sustainable pediatric cardiac program that will benefit generations to come.
This incredible progress wouldn’t have been achievable without the generous contributions from our donations. Thank you for helping us change the lives of these children.
We also extend our sincerest gratitude to our global network of partners and the Government of Guyana. Your unwavering support has been crucial in taking steps toward establishing a sustainable pediatric cardiac program in Guyana. Together, we are creating a brighter and healthier future for countless children in need.
Ezekiel’s Story of Hope
Ezekiel at home.
Our first case today is Ezekiel. Ezekiel is eight years old and has been diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot, which is healed by patching a hole in the heart and removing excess muscle so that blood may flow easier.
Ezekiel is from Linden, about a three hour drive from Georgetown, and lives with his mother and three older siblings. He’s got two older sisters that are twenty-two and twenty, and an older brother that is fourteen.
Ezekiel’s mother’s name is Angela. Angela is a forty-one year old police officer. She says that she had no idea anything was wrong until her cousin, who is a doctor, did Ezekiel’s two-week-old checkup.
Her cousin realized there was something wrong and sent her to Georgetown with a written letter about what was wrong. Angela said her cousin did this because he did not want to worry her, and she did not know what the letter said until she got to the hospital and the doctors at Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation told her what was going on. Angela told me after that, she noticed Ezekiel could not breathe right.
Ezekiel loves farming! His mother said he loves to eat healthy, and he is the healthiest eater in the whole house!
He enjoys planting kale and lettuce, then picking and eating the crops when they are ready! Angela says that Ezekiel also loves to share. He is extremely friendly, and everybody loves him.
When he is not around everyone asks how he is doing and if he is okay. Angela said her favorite thing about Ezekiel is everything, and explained that as a result of the surgery she hopes for, “the best and I know he is going to be okay, I have faith.”
Elijah’s Renewed Spirit
Angela, Elijah, and Elliott before surgery today (left to right).
Our second case today is Elijah! Elijah is six years old and was born with Down syndrome.
When he was only two weeks old, his pediatrician referred him to Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation because babies with Down syndrome are also more likely to have congenital heart defects.
Elijah was then diagnosed with an ASD (atrial septal defect), or a hole in the wall between the heart’s two upper chambers. ASDs are healed by placing a patch over the hole in the heart. The doctors at GPHC told Elijah’s parents that the hole should close up on its own.
After five years, they returned for another check up and were told the ASD had not closed. Everyone referred Elijah and his family to GPHC because this is the only hospital in Guyana with pediatric heart care, thanks to the help of Gift of Life!
Elijah’s parents’ names are Elliot and Rehana. Elliott is a thirty-four year old barber and Rehana, thirty-one, owns a boutique. The family is from Tuschen which is about an hour drive away from Georgetown.
Elliott and Rehana say that Elijah is a happy, energetic, sweet, loving child. Anybody he meets he’ll give a hug and a kiss to! In fact, Elliott says his favorite thing about Elijah is how sweet and expressive he is with his love, hugs and kisses. Elijah’s favorite things are Cocomelon, playing with toys, and running around.
We asked Elijah’s parents what they are hopeful for after the surgery. Elijah’s dad said, “We hope everything works well and surgery is successful and he is able to live a normal life and he can play knowing the heart problem is not there.”
We would like to thank Gift of Life and the government of Guyana from the bottom of our hearts. We hope our story will inspire a lot more people so that Gift of Life can keep doing what they are doing. We want to thank the doctors, even though we do not even know them yet. We are so happy and grateful.”
Interviewing Dr. Soto
Dr. Rodrigo Soto (left) and Dr. Rebekah Boyd (right), and Dr. Ignatius.
Today we had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Rodrigo Soto. Dr. Soto has been coming to Guyana to do training visits since 2015, and began coming here with GOLI in 2023. Dr. Soto turned the storage space in the bottom of GPHC into the pediatric unit it is today.
In March 2023, Dr. Soto and GOLI did their first case in Guyana. “One of the positive and more important collateral effects of the Guyanese pediatric cardiac program is that you first of all upgrade the whole hospital, because the hospital needs to upgrade itself in order to help and support a pediatric cardiac service.”
Dan Villareal, respiratory therapist.
You cannot have pediatric cardiac surgery without a good OR, without images, without the lab, without the blood bank, etcetera, etcetera. And at the same time, this country does not have a pediatric intensive care unit where very sick kids have to be taken care of and we are developing that…We are developing an intensive care unit for the children of Guyana and that’s huge and that’s something that will last forever.”
Amy Evans, perfusionist.
One of Dr. Soto’s favorite memories of Guyana happened during his third year doing training visits here. Dr. Soto and the team decided to call all the kids who had been served by the program and invite them back for a party with “cookies, ice creams, balloons, all that stuff!” Dr. Soto said it was really neat to see over one hundred kids at the parties with their scars who were now healthy running around.
Sonographer, Jill Inafuku.
Dr. Soto is extremely passionate about the goals he has for Guyana and all of the places he goes for training visits. He believes global health is not charity, but the extension of education to others so that everyone may have safe, clean, dependable healthcare.
Local nurses, Naomi and Jennifer, in the OR.
The end goals for this program in Guyana according to Dr. Soto and Gift of Life International are “to develop the pediatric ICU and to develop intensive care capacity here in Guyana. The second is to develop an independent pediatric cardiac program.” Training a team to be able to make this happen takes many, many years, but Dr. Soto and GOLI are determined and inspired to continue programs like this one in Guyana and others around the world until the goal is met.
Nurse Kari Guffey, Dr. Swati Agarwal (intensivist), and nurse Kate Bernoske at work in the ICU.
Our team of nurses, respiratory technicians, surgical technicians, intensivists, and sonographers have been working so hard to keep everything moving smoothly. Without them we would not be able to do these training visits. Every single one of the members of this team are utterly crucial in order for the program to continue to help heal little hearts around the world!
Local nurses charting (they chart everything by hand)!
As we look forward to the final days of surgeries, we are filled with gratitude for the progress we’ve made and the lives we’ve touched. The journey to strengthen pediatric healthcare in Guyana is ongoing, and with your continued support, we will keep pushing forward, ensuring that every child has the chance to live a healthy, fulfilling life.
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.
