In December, Dr. Paul Grossfeld of Rady’s Children’s Hospital/UCSD led his 4th pediatric cardiac mission to Cambodia. In December of 2009, 35 children were evaluated for procedures and of those 26 were scheduled for surgery. This mission has also been a teaching mission and it was learned that some of the previously trained doctors at the hospital have been able to perform some of these life saving procedures. Following is a mission report written about their December, 2009 visit to the Angkor Hospital for Children which showcase the need to continue this life saving work. Dr. Grossfeld was also recently published in “Cardiology of the Young” in 2010 (article follows). The article chronicled his work on his 2008 mission to Cambodia funded entirely by Children’s Lifeline.
Fulfilling one of Children’s Lifeline primary objectives, the pediatric cardiology team from San Diego has succeeded in conferring life saving surgical techniques and post operative care to the fine physicians and staff at Angkor Hospital for Children in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Upon arrival at Angkor Hospital for Children in December, the team was thrilled to learn that after three successful previous missions, the senior surgeon at Angkor Hospital for Children had begun to perform some of these PDA ligations on his own! Having operated with the surgeons from San Diego in the past has given Dr. Vuthy Sar the training and confidence to competently, successfully, and independently operate on children in 2009. Dr. Vuthy has spent considerable time assisting with the December mission’s most complex cases as did Dr. Vann Thy. Additionally, Angkor Hospital for Children’s most junior surgeon assisted in his first cardiac surgeries as well. As the Cambodian surgeons acquire more experience in performing PDA closures, Angkor Hospital for Children is appealing to our team to return for more complex closed heart cases and, in the future, open heart procedures that their surgeons are not trained to manage.
A sobering statistic greeted the UCSD team upon arrival at Angkor Hospital for Children. Since the successful 2008 mission, FOURTEEN children with PDAs died waiting for the San Diego team to return, meaning there is a 10% annual mortality for these patients. Given the great need and the complexity of most patients, Angkor Hospital for Children appealed to us to operate up until the last possible moment. Consequently, declining to operate on a patient meant imposing a potential death sentence and, that said it cannot be stressed enough the great need to continue our work in Cambodia.
