Diary entry #2

Choosing the Patients

We're here in Egypt for two weeks, which seems like a long time-but yesterday, after seeing the hallway jammed with parents and sick kids, I realized that it wasn't long enough.We weren't going to be able to help everyone.


We could only pick the most urgent cases. The children who were going to die immediately were moved up the front of the line and the kids who would be able to make it another couple of years were put toward the end. There were some that didn't make it on the list at all and it was really hard to see the patients walk away. We just don't have enough time to help everyone.


But that's why Dr. Bailey and the rest of the team are training the Egyptian hospital personnel. When we leave, hopefully they'll be able to take over and save the kids we aren't able to do. Dr. Aijaz Hashmi explains how we chose our cases for the next two weeks.

Dr. Aijaz Hashmi
Pediatric Cardiologist

The first day was spent screening a hall full of children with congenital heart defects.
Each child was seen with his parent and all their investigation including echocardiogram and cardiac catheterization data, were reviewed in a conference setting with the cardiac surgeon, the anesthesiologists, the Egyptian doctors in training, and myself.
We were able to accept most of the presenting children for surgical correction. A complete repair is anticipated for all the selected children such that they will be restored to a normal cardiac physiology allowing them to grow and develop normally and fully participate in physical activities.
Unfortunately, some children were declined because their condition had advanced to a stage where surgical correction was no longer an option. Recommendations were made to improve their medical management.