The week begins in Amman!
Excitement is in the air and Gift of Life International is in Amman, Jordan this week at the Jordan University Hospital! Monday through Thursday will consist of 8 surgeries and 3 catheterization procedures. After long travel days on Saturday and Sunday, our visiting team is just as eager as the local team to begin our 17th visit to Jordan!
These visits to Jordan through Gift of Life International would not be possible without our loyal partners Gift of Life International – Jordan and Chain of Hope! As a team, we are working together to heal the little hearts of 11 children this week!
Preparations underway!
Arlene LeMin, Ahmad, and Lindelyn Javier work to sterilize the instrumentation they brought from Philadelphia on Sunday.
Part of the team arrived Saturday evening, including Arlene LeMin and Lindelyn Javier. These two operating room scrub nurses travelled from St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Pennsylvania to Amman beginning Friday and going into Saturday morning. There is an 8 hour time difference between the East Coast (Eastern Time Zone) of the United States and Jordan! The East Coast is 8 hours behind Amman local time! It is a rough adjustment, but one the visiting team is happy to make in order to help heal little hearts! The first thing Arlene and Lin did Sunday was travel to the hospital to sterilize important instrumentation that will be used for surgery this week!
Na’el Musharbash, Dr. Saad Feroz, Dr. Saif Rehman, Lindelyn Javier, Becky Howard, Thomas Roberts, Nathan Baig, Dr. Mohammed Ghanamah, Muhanned Mudallal, Dr. Maria Bergel, Dr. Mohammed Absi, and Arlene LeMin (left to right, top to bottom).
The rest of the team arrived Sunday evening. After a welcome dinner and a good night’s rest, the team arrived at the Jordan University Hospital (JUH) on Monday morning around 7:30 AM. After a meeting to discuss the cases happening this week, the first surgery began!
Elias: A Heart Full of Hope
Elias before surgery.
The first surgery performed today was on Elias! Elias is 6 months old and has a twin sister who has a healthy heart! He was diagnosed at birth with tetralogy of Fallot. Tetralogy of Fallot is characterized by four congenital cardiac defects that happen together. These defects include a ventricular septal defect, overriding aorta, pulmonary stenosis, and right ventricular hypertrophy. This condition can lead to trouble breathing, bluish tints to the skin, lips, and fingernails, and frequent fatigue. Elias is now out of surgery and is recovering in the pediatric intensive care unit with the visiting and local teams of pediatric nurses, as well as visiting intensivists (doctors who provide special care for critically ill patients).
Faris: A New Beginning
Faris before surgery.
Our second surgery today was performed on Faris! Faris is the first child in his family, as well as the first in his family to have any kind of heart disease or defect. He was diagnosed with supravalvular pulmonary stenosis (SPVS) at birth. SPVS is narrowing in the artery above one of the four valves that control blood flow in the heart. To remedy this, a patch is sewn into the artery to enlarge it and relieve the narrowing! This is called a supravalvular patch, and is what Faris’ operation will be for. Faris went into surgery this evening and is expected to be out of surgery and recovering in the ICU later tonight!
Photos of the Jordan University Hospital (JUH) pediatric intensive care unit.
Until tomorrow!
We will continue to stay updated on Elias and Faris throughout the week, and will introduce patients as the days go on! Our first day in Jordan was a success and we are excited to see where the rest of the week will go!
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.
Thank everyone for their kind efforts and say hello. For all those who are helping Faris and Elias, there will be good possibility that 50 years from now, there will be family and friends that will be seeing them, talking with them because of what you’ve done today. I can only try to share the joy of speaking with Grace, the very first recipient of Gift of Life this weekend. There are no words that can fully describe the impact that you are all having. God bless you all.