MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - A little boy named Yazid now has the ability to dart around the Children's Museum of Memphis like a normal 5-year-old, climbing into the driver's seat of the fire engines on display and riding the carousel with his mother, Yamilka Gonzelez.
"Truly, it's very emotional because he has returned to normal. He's been an active child and I'm happy to see him better," Yamilka said as Yazid played nearby.
A Mid-South nonprofit with a gigantic heart united for the 120th time with the state-of-the-art team at the Heart Institute at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital to help get Yazid well.
The 5-year-old arrived in Memphis on August 4 with his mother Yamilka and a nurse named Isamar Betegon, all the way from their homes in the Central American country of Panama.
Rotary Gift of Life Mid-South rolled out the red carpet for the visitors who came to Memphis to correct Yazid's congenital heart defects.
"Sometimes when he plays a lot, his lips are purple or blue," said mom Yamilka through nurse Isamar, who translated from Spanish.
Yamilka, a married mother of three children who works at Panamanian hotels preparing food for guests, says doctors diagnosed Yazid's congenital heart defects at age 2.
"She's so grateful for the opportunity to be here and get surgery for the baby," said nurse Isamar, translating Yamilka's maternal gratitude.
"We just got through doing a Rotary International Grant where we'll be able to bring six kids from Panama for heart surgery and he's the first one," said Bill Pickens, a driving human force of nature and passionate Chairman of the Rotary Gift of Life Mid-South.
The nonprofit has helped 120 children, mostly from third world countries, come to Memphis since 2007 for life-saving and life preserving surgery at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital.
Pickens and other volunteers welcome Rotary Gift of Life visitors, drive them all over the city to enjoy Memphis' amenities from the start of their stay to finish, provide meals while the visiting families are staying at FedEx Family House across Poplar Avenue from the hospital, and treating mothers and other caregivers to shopping, spa days at Gould's and even trips to the dentist.
Dr. Danielle Gottleib Sen, one of 22 women congenital heart surgeons in America, delayed Yazid's surgery so she could take the time to explain the procedure in detail to Yamilka.
Nurse Isamar translated for Yamilka as Dr. Gottleib Sen, who arrived at the Le Bonheur Heart Institute early this year, used pictures and ordinary language to go through every phase of Yazid's open heart surgery.
"It's just a matter of using language that all families can understand. And so, I showed her these pictures of a normal heart and a heart with tetralogy. And I pointed out what the usual defects are," said Dr. Gottleib Sen.
The technical name for Yazid's condition is "Tetralogy of Fallot" (TOF) or a heart defect that is present at birth.
Dr. Gottleib Sen was recruited to Le Bonheur by Dr. Bret A. Mettler, MD, the hospital's new Chief of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery and Executive Co-Director of the Le Bonheur Heart Institute.
Dr. Gottlieb Sen and Dr. Mettler met at Boston Children's Hospital 21 years ago and most recently served together at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
Dr. Gottleib Sen says she was impressed with the Le Bonheur Heart Institute but also Memphis' long and enduring reputation as a center for entrepreneurs in medical technology.
Dr. Gottleib Sen has pioneered design of an infant monitor which would allow surgeons and other physicians to monitor a baby's welfare better once released from the hospital.
"It's centered around a particularly fragile population of kids with heart disease," Dr. Gottleib Sen said.
Now the surgeon says doctors rely on parents to monitor and report a young heart patient's vital sign.
Someday, patients who receive treatment at Le Bonheur might all be monitored with the device the surgeon is researching and designing when she's not preparing parents and performing meticulous surgery on Le Bonheur's young heart patients.
On August 12, eight days after his arrival in Memphis, little Yazid was under the care of the surgical team inside Le Bonheur's operating room #5. This reporter and videographer Nic Lopez were granted access to the surgery so we could share the story of Yazid, the recently expanded Le Bonheur Heart Institute and the enormous generosity of Rotary Gift of Life Mid-South.
With a team of ten inside the operating room, we heard the beeping of machines monitoring Yazid's vital signs and watched as an anesthesiologist and nurse anesthetist monitored Yazid's sedation. The little boy's face was curtained from our sight as the operating room light focused intently on Yazid's little chest which had been prepped for heart surgery.
Dr. Gottleib Sen happened to have an all-female team surrounding her for this procedure, including first assistant Valerie Guy and scrub tech Anna Mendez who were all intently locked in to every move the surgeon made.
Operating room nurse Jessica Fowler provided play by play narration of the surgery for us as the surgeon wore special magnifying glasses that included a camera which produced images displayed on a monitor that all could see.
As the surgeon made her incisions, nurse Fowler helped us understand what was unfolding.
"So she's going to keep the heart beating as much as she can. Once they get to a point where they can't do anything else, they'll have perfusion-injected medicines, and they'll stop the heart and open up the heart and do the repairs on the inside. They like to keep that time as short as possible," Fowler said.
"So, she is literally working her way around a beating heart, right?" this reporter queried.
"That's why they're the best," Fowler responded.
"There really isn't anything as a lone genius in heart surgery. We work with many different people who work in different parts of the room who have distinct sets of expertise, and we rely on them," Dr. Gottleib Sen said in an interview days after the procedure.
Seemingly without words, the surgeon led the nearly 5-and-a-half-hour operation with her assistants intuitively making moves and handling instruments in a kind of choreographed dance to correct Yazid's heart.
It was a marvel to behold.
"There's a whole bunch of call and response or interactivity that you might have noticed in the OR and we depend on people in their stations and positions around the room to be able to understand the what we're asking and also sometimes to intuit or preemptively anticipate what we might need or what we're going to do," Dr. Gottleib Sen said. "I've been so impressed with the crew here at Le Bonheur."
We were allowed to observe for about 40 minutes as the team proceeded to ultimately stop Yazid's heart and the perfusion team of trained physiologists made sure blood circulated to all of the child's organs as Dr. Gottlieb Sen repaired his temporarily stopped heart.
"This is what we've dedicated our lives to. We spent two decades training to do it and many, many hours a week taking care of kids. We prepare for the technical parts of the operation and then it's a very special bond with the family," the surgeon said.
Dr. Jason Johnson, Le Bonheur's Chief of Cardiology and Heart Institute Co-Director, says the hospital has created a 31-bed dedicated Cardiovascular Unit.
"So, the expansion of 17 new cardiovascular intensive care beds and 14 cardiac care beds or a step-down unit allows us to care for more patients not only in Memphis but in the Mid-South and surrounding states."
The Chief of Cardiology is particularly proud of Le Bonheur's eighteen years of care for children like Yazid, #120 in the Rotary Gift of Life marathon of care.
"We've done surgeries on Gift of Life patients from 16 different countries since 2007," Johnson said.
Interventional Cardiologist Dr. Neil Tailor performs heart cauterizations on Le Bonheur's often tiny heart patients and has some high technology at hand that helps.
"So, I think Le Bonheur is very highly regarded," Tailor said. "There are so many things we do here that are unique even around the country. With virtual reality, we have one of the first centers in the country that will perform heart caths in the MRI suite."
Panamanian ER Nurse Isamar Betegon, who accompanied Yazid and Yamilka to Memphis courtesy of Rotary Gift of Life, had a front row seat to Le Bonheur's high tech advances and observed the many ways Le Bonheur's team goes above and beyond the call of duty.
"It's amazing," the 24-year-old said. "Le Bonheur gave me the opportunity to be present for surgeries, how it's structured, they work; it is wonderful. All the personnel do a great job; there are things I can share with my companions in Panama," said Betegon, who says she'll propose using in-room white erase boards in her hospital in Panama.
The boards list the on-duty nurses, doctors and any pertinent information patients and parents rely on in Mid-South hospitals.
Yazid Gonzolez spent a little more time in the hospital over the weekend as doctors made sure the young man can keep on climbing all over places like the Children's Museum as he did two weeks post-surgery on August 26.
His mother could not be more grateful, especially to Rotary Gift of Life leader Bill Pickens and his team of volunteers.
"He is recovering well," said Yazid's mother Yamilka. "Thanks to Bill Pickens, this reception has been something super pleasant. We have not felt alone at any moment. Rotary Gift of Life has brought us help every day and we are super appreciative. We have spent our time well," the mother said as she prepares to return home with her 5-year-old boy who can get back to playing and enjoying a new lease on life at home.
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