Our Hearts Are In El Salvador:Missions
The Gift of Life International's "Our Hearts are in El Salvador" global initiative will develop a sustainable pediatric cardiac surgery program at Hospital Bloom in El Salvador by the year 2015. This goal will be achieved via ongoing surgical training missions, professional development and provision of resources to ensure surgeries will go on in the absence of mission training.
The training missions follow a protocol that has been developed by the local Salvadoran team in consultation with Gift of Life International medical advisors. There will be five training missions per year for five years: in the first three years, 150 children will receive surgery, 200 children in 2014, and 250 children in 2015.
During missions, the Salvadoran surgical team will conduct the surgeries with guidance from the visiting training teams. This supervised hands-on experience is crucial in the continuous development of the Salvadoran surgical staff. Each mission will focus on specific congenital heart defects ensuring that the Salvadorans become familiar with the techniques necessary to treat all types of defects.
Each mission will treat a minimum of 10 patients and visiting doctors will work one on one with the Salvadoran team to provide intensive training. In addition to mission training, 12 Salvadoran intensive care nurses will go through a six-month training course.
November/December 2011
October 2011
July 2011
March 2011
December 2010