15 Children treated during March Refugee Mission

Joud lives in Latakia in Syria, an area that has been impacted by the recent earthquake.

He was born with a very complex heart defect which has affected him since childhood. Joud also lost his twin brother, days after he was born.

On this mission, Joud had two procedures, one in the Catheter Laboratory and a final surgery in the operating theatre.

Although his surgery was long and difficult, Joud has recovered very well from his life-saving operation.

Meral is five years old. This is her second-staged heart surgery, her first operation was back when she was just one month old.

Meral's heart defect resulted in poor blood circulation in her lungs and she was visibly blue in her fingers and toes.

During this mission Dr Turrentine's operation successfully allow blood directly from the upper part of her body to her artery.

She has since recovered from her operation and discharged from hospital.

Chain of Hope flew Lavi from Iraq to Jordan to have her life-saving heart surgery during this mission.

She was born with several holes in her heart, which did not close and was affecting her breathing and growth.

Dr Turrentine did a full repair to close the holes in her heart and a second procedure to place a pacemaker in her heart.

We are happy Lavi has recovered well from and has returned home to Iraq with her parents.

Ashraf is nine-month-old and was born with an opening between the two major blood vessels leading from the heart, which didn’t close after birth. This impacted the flow of blood into his lungs.

He’s been waiting for this operation since November last year, which was delayed because he was sick.

We are happy that he had this operation during this mission to give him a better chance at life.

Husaini is five years old and was suffering from a very complex heart disease which was diagnosed days after he was born.

When his parents contacted Chain of Hope last month, we arranged a review of his condition and made plans for him to fly to Jordan to meet Dr Turrentine for his surgery.

Husaini first interaction with Dr Turrentine has left an indelible mark on his life and he now aspires to be a Heart Surgeon.

Qais is four-month-old. He has had significant failure to thrive, sweating, fast breathing and poor weight gain since birth due to two large holes in his heart. He weighed 4.3 Kg at birth and at 4 months of age, he weighs 4 Kg.

Dr Turrentine did a complete repair for Qais and because of this surgery he will now be able to gain weight better, thrive and breathe easier.

24hrs after his operation Qais was visibly improving and his mum said she cannot believe he is no longer sweating all the time, breathing easier and taking almost 2 ozs of his feed from his bottle easily!

Seven year old Farah is an aspiring doctor.

She was born with a hole in her heart, but this has not stopped her from being very cheerful and a top student in her class. Just two weeks ago, Farah did a presentation to her classmates about her ambitions to become a doctor.

we are happy she had a successful open-heart surgery with Dr Mark Turrentine during this mission which will give her the opportunity to grow and achieve her dreams.