Twenty-Eight and Counting
August 31, 2006
Twenty-Eight and Counting
 |
| Miterlande |
 |
| Ocean |
 |
| Joseph |
 |
| Jhiny |
I counted the number of kids and young adults on the Haitian Hearts list today who need heart surgery. There are 28. The cases are evenly divided between congenital heart disease and rheumatic heart disease. They all need surgery.
Some of the 28 patients are OSF-SFMC patients that have been operated in Peoria. OSF refuses to care for these children now. They will die without surgery and other medical centers are not eager to operate on international children that have been operated on somewhere else. So these Haitian Hearts patients are really in trouble because they are stuck in Haiti with hearts that need more surgery.
Pictured above are four patients that are representative of the 28 on the list that need heart surgery. (None of these kids have had surgery yet.)
The girl at the top is Miterlande. She has the beret with USA printed on it. Miterlande is 14-years old and lives in Haiti's central plateau about one hour north of Port-au-Prince. She has been short of breath with exertion for about two years. In Haiti, I ask patients like Miterlande if they can walk up a hill. And when they say "no", it is usually due to congestive heart failure. In Miterlande's case, she has congestive heart failure due to a leaky mitral valve which has been damaged by rheumatic heart disease.
The baby boy below Miterlande, being held by his father, is Ocean. He is 14 months old. If you look closely, you can see that his left chest is larger than his right chest. The reason for this is that his heart is large and pushing the left side of his chest outward. He has a very ominous sounding murmur due to a hole between the lower chambers of his heart called a ventricular septal defect. Each time his heart beats, it sends too much blood to his lungs and too much blood back to his heart. He needs the hole patched in surgery. A good pediatric heart surgeon and team can do this very easily. Before the heart-lung bypass machine was available, cardiologists around the world knew their patients had ventricular septal defects, but could do nothing about it except treat them medically. Autopsy on these children revealed the hole that could have been repaired quite easily if the technology were available. If Ocean does not have surgery, it will not be due to a lack of heart-lung bypass technology. The technology is in the developed world to help the pediatric heart surgeon perform successful surgery. The problem is the will is not there to help kids like Ocean.
The third photo down is Joseph. He is 16-years-old and like Miterlande he has rheumatic heart disease which has destroyed his mitral valve. He needs surgery very soon or he will die. He is an excellent student, has a passport, and is ready to travel.
The last child on the list is Jhiny. She is 14-years-old. I examined her for the first time and she has a hole between the upper chambers of her heart. This is called an atrial septal defect. She is chronically short of breath due to congestive heart failure. The left side of her chest is larger than the right side because her heart is sick and enlarged. She needs surgery too. Interestingly, a medical center in the United States evaluated her echocardiogram four years ago and sent her mother a letter stating that Jhiny was "invited" to their medical center for repair for a mere $27,500 dollars but if she stayed longer than seven days, she would be charged $1,500 dollars per day. This seems kind like a cruel letter to send. Her Haitian mother could not afford this since her income is less than $100 dollars per year. And now Jhiny is four years sicker.
If anyone out there in cyberspace has any ability to help these kids, please do so soon. If you have a good contact with an administrator or someone who sits on the board of a children's medical center with heart surgery, please contact them. As a rule, physicians love to take care of international patients, especially kids with heart problems, and will waive their fees.
Thank you.
John Carroll, MD
haitianhearts@gmail.com
309-648-1087
The girl at the top is Miterlande. She has the beret with USA printed on it. Miterlande is 14-years old and lives in Haiti's central plateau about one hour north of Port-au-Prince. She has been short of breath with exertion for about two years. In Haiti, I ask patients like Miterlande if they can walk up a hill. And when they say "no", it is usually due to congestive heart failure. In Miterlande's case, she has congestive heart failure due to a leaky mitral valve which has been damaged by rheumatic heart disease.
The baby boy below Miterlande, being held by his father, is Ocean. He is 14 months old. If you look closely, you can see that his left chest is larger than his right chest. The reason for this is that his heart is large and pushing the left side of his chest outward. He has a very ominous sounding murmur due to a hole between the lower chambers of his heart called a ventricular septal defect. Each time his heart beats, it sends too much blood to his lungs and too much blood back to his heart. He needs the hole patched in surgery. A good pediatric heart surgeon and team can do this very easily. Before the heart-lung bypass machine was available, cardiologists around the world knew their patients had ventricular septal defects, but could do nothing about it except treat them medically. Autopsy on these children revealed the hole that could have been repaired quite easily if the technology were available. If Ocean does not have surgery, it will not be due to a lack of heart-lung bypass technology. The technology is in the developed world to help the pediatric heart surgeon perform successful surgery. The problem is the will is not there to help kids like Ocean.
The third photo down is Joseph. He is 16-years-old and like Miterlande he has rheumatic heart disease which has destroyed his mitral valve. He needs surgery very soon or he will die. He is an excellent student, has a passport, and is ready to travel.
The last child on the list is Jhiny. She is 14-years-old. I examined her for the first time and she has a hole between the upper chambers of her heart. This is called an atrial septal defect. She is chronically short of breath due to congestive heart failure. The left side of her chest is larger than the right side because her heart is sick and enlarged. She needs surgery too. Interestingly, a medical center in the United States evaluated her echocardiogram four years ago and sent her mother a letter stating that Jhiny was "invited" to their medical center for repair for a mere $27,500 dollars but if she stayed longer than seven days, she would be charged $1,500 dollars per day. This seems kind like a cruel letter to send. Her Haitian mother could not afford this since her income is less than $100 dollars per year. And now Jhiny is four years sicker.
If anyone out there in cyberspace has any ability to help these kids, please do so soon. If you have a good contact with an administrator or someone who sits on the board of a children's medical center with heart surgery, please contact them. As a rule, physicians love to take care of international patients, especially kids with heart problems, and will waive their fees.
Thank you.
John Carroll, MD
haitianhearts@gmail.com
309-648-1087
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Comments from February 2021--
- In 2008, we were able to find a medical center and surgeon for Miterlande. She received an artificial mitral valve and did very well. We keep in touch with Miterlande who is now 28 years old and gave birth to a healthy baby last year.
- Unfortunately, I lost track of Ocean and cannot give any follow-up. I do not know if he ever had surgery.
- Joseph, the young man with a beautiful smile, died in Haiti in 2006. We could not find a medical center for him.
- Jhiny was operated in the States and had the hole in her heart patched. She did very well and was adopted by her host family in the States.
- And OSF in Peoria continued to refuse all Haitians who needed heart surgery, even those who had been operated at OSF in the late 90s and needed repeat heart surgery. Four young Haitian Hearts' patients died who could have been helped.
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