7 News Belize

Successful Surgery For Four Kids
posted (February 16, 2018)
4 Belizean families are breathing a huge sigh of relief after their children got life-saving heart surgeries at the KHMH yesterday. Normally, these types of procedures are not available in Belize, but, through the Rotary Gift of Life Program, doctors from Nebraska came down and performed the procedures right at the KHMH.

The doctors used the KHMH's facilities, and brought down equipment and supplies they needed, instead of racking up huge traveling expenses for their patients.

Our 7News team was invited to meet the doctors, and a few of the families whose lives they have made a lot easier. Daniel Ortiz has that story:

Daniel Ortiz reporting
Meet baby Leiny Montalvo. She's 1 year and 8 months old, and she's from the Corozal Village of Chunox. She was born with a heart condition which was threatening her life.

Daniel Montalvo - Father
"At birth, she detected with PDA, and for us, well, it was something new, and very difficult."

She's one of 4 children with a similar diagnosis, and so doctors from the US came down to Belize as part of the Gift of life program, they treated her and the others for the same condition

Dr. Jeff Delaney - Pediatric Interventional Cardiologist
"All 4 children had basically the same diagnosis. Two of the patients were teenagers, and 1 little girl was age 3, and 1 was age one. They all have a blood vessel, between the big blood vessel that supplies their bodies, the aorta, and the blood vessel going to their lungs. That is supposed to close when you're a baby. If it doesn't, it provides a lot of extra blood to the lungs, and it makes your heart get too big, and eventually, your lungs and your heart can fail as a result."

But before that happened, these families were in extreme distress to know that the lives of their kids hung in the balance.

Daniel Montalvo
"We tried to go to Chetumal to find another alternative and see, but after they gave us the expense of a surgery like this would cost us-"

Daniel Ortiz "How much were they saying that it would cost?"

Daniel Montalvo
"It would have been like $20,000 they told us."

Dr. Jeff Delaney
"The procedures in the United States, if what is billed out to insurance companies, and to folks getting these procedures, is often 25 and 40 thousand dollars US."

It's a huge medical bill that none of these families would have been able to afford on their own, but, fortunately, the Rotary Gift of Life coordinators learned of their cases, and collaborated with Dr. Delaney and his team to try to make an intervention free of cost.

Dr. Jeff Delaney
"So all of the procedures fortunately went very well. We also have another doctor, who's not here for the interview right now, but we brought a cardiac anesthesiologist, who worked with the anesthesia team at Karl Heusner. All of the children come to the cath lab, and they're placed under anesthesia, and then, we place the catheters in the leg, one artery, and 1 vein, and we thread the catheter up through the body to the place where this blood vessel. We take pictures of it with the X-Ray cameras, and the contrast dye, and that tells us which of our devices will fill that blood vessel, close it completely, and not interfere with any of the adjacent structures and blood vessels."

As you would imagine, the families of these ailing children are overjoyed that they've been given the gift of life. They will now live normal lives, as if nothing was ever wrong.

Daniel Montalvo
"So, now, the process that was done to her, now that she's okay, first of all, we would like to give thanks to God, for this this process, and for the Gift of Life group that came here. The doctors who did the process, it's something for us that words cannot express the gratitude that we have to them, and to God for what has been done to my baby."

Dr. Jeff Delaney
"It's tremendous, the families are so grateful. They're so genuine. They know that without this program, they may not have had the capacity to get their child treated, and now their child has the opportunity to live a happy, healthy normal life, and it's just the best feeling in the world to be able to come down and be a part of that."

And apart from these gifted doctors who so graciously donated their time and expertise, the program is backed by medical companies who were all too willing to pitch in with equipment and supplies.

Stacey Froemming - First Assistant
"Fortunately for us, the vendors that I deal with frequently are more than happy to contribute to worthy causes, and generally just takes me the time to draft a letter, tell them exactly what supplies we need. All told, between all of the vendors, with the discounted prices that we got on some of the devices, we probably brought down about $20,000 worth of supplies. Now, we didn't use everything, and some of that will go back, and we'll just save it for our next trip down, but in the long run, it is really gratifying from my perspective to deal with vendors who have a heart for children in particular, and for the mission that we're embarking on."

Tylon Tillett - Press Officer, KHMH
"The Rotary Gift of Life identifies these kids. They come here to KHMH. They use our facility to help create these life-giving surgeries, as their moto says. Our staff - our doctors help in the preparation of the surgeries, the performance of the surgeries, and the recovery that is necessary for the patient."

And as for baby Leiny, her dad says that her recovery from the surgery is going well.

Daniel Montalvo
"She has been recovering. Today, she actually wants to go down and walk, and move around, she doesn't want to stay in bed, but for the moment she cannot. So, she needs to be resting for a least 5 days the least. But, she seems to be really active right now. She wants to do her walking, and that's my baby. She has been very active, and it seems like she is back to it right now."

But, while the doctors were able to save the lives of these 4 kids, they were not so lucky with 2 others. They were actually preparing to help those 2, but because their cases were more complex, the doctors wanted to properly review and document their heart conditions. So, they brought down equipment to do this, only to learn that the kids passed away before they arrived earlier this week. So, for these doctors, the successes they had with the 4 kids they were able to attend to is bittersweet.

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