Hospital Full of Heart--July 2011

Luckner--Photo by John Carroll

 

Please help!!

This young man needs your help.

Luckner is 22 years old and was “discovered” in Port-au-Prince after the earthquake by a dynamite Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellow, Dr. Jen.

Luckner was noted to have a heart murmur and is need of heart surgery.

Dr. Jen sent him on public transportation today to Hopital Albert Schweitzer. It took him three hours to get here this morning.

Here is a synopsis of his History and Physical:

Luckner told me he started having heart problems five years ago. Shortness of breath on exertion. He denied a specific history consistent with rheumatic fever. (Most people with valvular heart disease secondary to rheumatic fever don’t know they had rheumatic fever….)

He appeared well nourished and muscular.

BP: 144/0

HR: 72/minute

RR: 12/minute

Pulse ox: 99% room air.

Carotid pulses: hyperdynamic

Heart exam: S1, S2,S3+/Grade 3/6 systolic ejection murmur left third intercostal space/Grade 3/6 early diastolic murmur same location/PMI 6th intercostal space mid axillary line.

Lungs: clear to auscultation

Bottom line:

Luckner needs his aortic valve replaced. His aortic valve is very leaky which stresses his main pumping chamber, the left ventricle.  Medication is not the answer long term. Surgery is the answer for Luckner.

This surgery cannot be safely done in Haiti at the present moment. The technology and intensive care necessary to give him the best chance at survival are not here.

Luckner needs to be accepted by an excellent medical center in the United States for heart surgery. And the sooner the better.

We can provide an echocardiogram on VHS tape for review by any interested heart surgeon who repairs and replaces valves.

Haitian Hearts will pay $10,000 dollars to an accepting medical center for Luckner’s heart surgery and will help arrange his passport, visa, and travel to and from the United States.

Luckner is a great surgical candidate.

Please do what you can to convince a quality medical center to accept this young man.

Thank you.

 

John A. Carroll, MD

www.haitianhearts.org