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Searching for the Broken Hearts - CHP Kurdistan
A Children’s Heart Project Team served in Kurdistan this month to do heart screenings, echoes, and catheter procedures. The doctors went into elementary schools in the villages, where 60 percent of the population consists of widows and orphans, and screened over 1,500 children for heart defects. If any of the children’s’ heart beats seemed suspicious, they were sent to the new local community center for additional examinations. At the Samaritan’s Purse-funded center, Children’s Heart Project cardiologists Kirk Milhoan and Mary Porisch performed 127 heart echoes. Thirty-eight children were identified as good candidates for heart surgery.
Girls wait to be screened at a local elementary school. |
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Boys waiting in line for heart screening. |
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The team screened the children for irregular heart beats. If the condition of the child’s heart was thought to be suspicious they were scheduled for heart echoes. |
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A man and his boy wait for heart echoes at the new local community center. |
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If the child is identified as a good candidate for heart surgery then Children’s Heart Project team attempts to find a hospital to accept the case.
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A father waits in anticipation as his child is screened for heart defects. |
Some children must be flown out of country in order to receive the necessary care they require. |
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The team also provided essential nurse training to nurses in the area. |
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