MEET MAEZA

HEAVY BUT HAPPY HEARTS

As we wrap up our mission here at the Hospital del Ninos Bustamante, our hearts are heavy. Heavy with relief, joy, sadness, and every emotion that we have felt over the past two weeks. We have watched as a heart surgeon hand massaged a babyʼs heart and started it beating again. We have witnessed a mothers' pure joy when she heard that her child who had no chance of survival without surgery had come through the surgery. We have experienced crushing sorrow when we lost little Mateo, a six-month old baby with severe heart disease. And we rejoiced when Richard didn't lose his battle and rebounded from critical condition to live another day.

These are the daily milestones we live for and fight for. These children are who we work for. These are the parents who are our heroes. This is why MKI exists.

We would like to thank all those that make this happen. We have doctors and nurses from all around the world helping us; volunteers; local nurses and doctors; many government officials in Ecuador; the staff and management of Hospital del Ninos Bustamante; our MKI staff; and the Fundacion El Cielo Para Los Ninos Del Ecuador and many, many others.

Most importantly, we would like to honor the people of Ecuador for giving us their faith; welcoming us to their country, trusting us with the lives of their sick children, and allowing us the awesome responsibility of performing surgery on them. And to think...they thank us.

Gracias mis amigos. Vaya con dios.

CON PESAR, AUN CUANDO NUESTROS CORAZONES ESTAN FELICES

Al terminar nuestra misión aquí en el Hospital de los Niños Bustamante, nuestros corazones están apesarados. Apesarados por el descanso, alegría, tristeza, y otras emociones que hemos sentido durante las últimas dos semanas. Hemos observado a un cirujano masajear el corazón de un bebé y hacerlo latir de nuevo. Hemos sido testigo de un niño desahuciado por falta de cirugía y de la alegría de su madre cuando escuchó que la cirugía lo había slavado. Hemos sentido un gran pésame al perder al pequeño Matéo por su enfermedad del corazón. Y nos llenamos de alegría cuando el pequeño Richard no perdió su batalla y se recobró de su condición crítica.

Estos niños son nuestras metas diarias por las que vivimos y luchamos. Trabajamos por ellos. Ellos son los padres heroicos. Es por eso que MKI existe.

Queremos dar las gracias a todos los que hacen ésto posible. Tenemos enfermeras y doctores de todas partes del mundo ayudándonos, voluntarios, enfermeras y doctores locales, muchos oficiales de gobierno del Ecuador, los empleados y jefes del Hospital de los Niños Bustamante, nuestro cuerpo de MKI, y la Fundación El Cielo Para Los Niños del Ecuador, y muchos, muchos más.

En principal, queremos honrar a la gente del Ecuador por su fe en nosotros, por acogernos en su país, por confiarnos con las vidas de sus niños y permitrnos la gran responsabilidad de ejecutarles cirugías. Y pensar ... que ellos nos dan las gracias.

Gracias, amigos. Quédense con Dios.

Photos by Juan Ramirez

Our Party

Today is our last day in Guayaquil, but the work that MKI and ICHF did will last forever in the lives of the children that we have saved.  We will be back becuase we are not only here to save lives when we're on a mission, but we're here to help the local Ecuadorian doctors save more lives on their own.

ICHF Nurse Frank, told us how at his UK hospital there are about 100 PICU nurses who cover about 600 pediatric cardiac surgeries a year--so each nurse covers about 6 surgeries.  Well the four nurses at Hospital del Nino Bustamante covered 27 surgeries these past two weeks--meaning this intensive experience equals years of learning in only weeks. 

So we celebrated MKI saving lives and supporting the local healthcare professionals today at a wonderful half-day long party.  

OR Update
Dr. Gilbert and his surgical team are doing one more TOF surgery this morning at Hospital del Nino Bustamante.  That surgery will make it a total of 24 surgeries performed by MKI and ICHF in these last two weeks.

PICU Update

The team is doing a great job watching over the last couple patients in the PICU.  Right now we have three young babies who are being cared for by Dr. Vohwinkel, Nurse Frank and Nurse Michelle.  Dr. Clark pulled another 24 hour shift in the PICU that ended this morning.  And Dr. Vohwinkel volunteered to stay another three days, until Monday, to watch over the babies recovering.

Recovery Update

Stephanie was moved up to the Recovery room.  Scarley is doing well and her sister is staying by her bedside.  Richard is up and moving and giving away fresh strawberries to staff and other patients as a way to say "thank you."

Baby Justin is recovering and lit up when MKI Interns Jeremy and Jordan came in to say "hi" this morning.  

OR Update
MKI patient, Carlos, just successfully had his aortic valve repaired and is resting in the ICU at Clinica Guayaquil.  He'll stay at this ICU for two days or until stable and then he'll be transferred to Bustamante del Nino Hospital.

The surgical team was pleased with Carlos's results.  They took a moment afterwards to take pictures in the doctor's lounge to celebrate the occasion of MKI working with both Clinica Guayaquil and Hospital del Nino Bustamante.  Then the surgical team took a short break for lunch and just went back into the OR for another surgery--the second aortic valve repair for today.

MISSION UPDATE
We had an early morning today.  Our team had to gather our medical gear at Hospital del Nino Bustamante and travel to Clinica Guayaquil (the oldest private hospital in the city) in order to set up a new OR today for surgeries.  Clinica Guayaquil has been supporting our mission at Hosiptal del Nino Bustamante for the past week and a half by lending equipment and monitoring machines for the PICU room.  They extended their support today, by inviting Dr. Chris Gilbert and his surgery team to perform two surgeries on MKI patients.  The transition this morning was seamless.  MKI travels light and fast!  We packed up suitecases with the necessary sutures, gauzes, sterile equipment, and loaded the buses; 45 minutes later we were setting up in our new OR and our first MKI patient of the day, Raphael, was being wheeled into the OR.

PICU UPDATE

Our team is split up, with the ICU team staying at Hospital del Nino Bustamante and the surgery team coming to Clinica Guayaquil.  But with donated walkie talkies and cellphones, we're easily keeping track of the two operations.

RECOVERY ROOM UPDATE

The kids are doing well.  Genesis is running around.  Richard is up and walking around.  Our MKI Interns, Jeremy and Jordan, will be playing with the kids later today and getting them ready for our big party tomorrow.

A New Opportunity
Another hospital in town, Clinica Guayaquil, has been a key player in the success of our mission here at Hospital del Niño Bustamante.  Their Medical Director, Roberto Gilbert, M.D., no relation to our Dr. Gilbert, has kindly requested our assistance with two children who are MKI children but who were not on our surgical schedule.  Our Dr. Gilbert has agreed to perform two surgeries tomorrow at Clinica Guayaquil with Dr. Roberto Gilbert.  Our PICU is practically overflowing with recovering children and we are nearing the end of our mission here.  We have no surgeries scheduled for Friday and perhaps one more child for tomorrow.  So Drs. Gilbert will work in tandem to save two more precious lives at Clinica Guayaquil.

OR Update

During lunch, Dr. Gilbert told Beth (ICHF Intern) that we are still on for four surgeries today.  But it looks like the PICU needs to get some additional equipment or one of beds need to become available.  

PICU Update

The hospital team added a seventh bed into the PICU in order to care for the next couple surgeries, but we are still short the monitoring equipment, so things are a bit up in the air this afternoon.  Other than bringing in more beds and looking for equipment all the kids are doing well.  Geovanny is up and was receiving a back massage from a local nurse in order to ensure that his lungs are functioning well.  Below is a video.

Recovery Room Update

The kids are looking great.  Below is a great video of Genesis walking around.  Genesis is the girl who amazingly quickly recovered after complications with her surgery required Dr. Gilbert to come back into the OR and fix her pulmonary artery that was leaking.

OR Update
We might only do three surgeries today instead of four.  Dr. Gilbert is concerned that there is not enough room in the PICU--our beds are nearly full.  Will keep you posted . . .

Electricity Went Out
The electricity went out this morning, but the back-up generators kicked in.  Ray, our Bio-mechanical Engineer, explained that this hospital, like nearly every other hospital, not only has on-site generation but two sets of outlets.  The dark orange or red outlets run regardless of municipal power and the white outlets are tied to general power sources.

PICU Update

Geovanny is doing well.  Here is a short video of a local PICU nurse massaging Geovanny's back to make sure that his lungs are properly draining.