A mission to save Peruvian children

by Ashley Barker
Public Relations

T he first of 15 pediatric patients in Peru gave Margaret Relle, a second-year MUSC perfusion student, and Alicia Sievert, an MUSC pediatric perfusionist, the biggest smile of their nearly week-long medical mission trip to Lima, Peru, last October.

A group of cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, scrub nurses and perfusionists went to Lima, Peru, to help save children with congenital heart defects through surgery and to train local medical professionals.

The patient came in to the minimalist, Spanish-speaking hospital with her hair in pig tails. She was bright-eyed, with no worry that she needed to have heart surgery in order to survive and live a normal life.

The anesthesiologists, cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, echo cardiologists, scrub nurses and perfusionists who had traveled to the Instituto Nacional de Salud del Niño from around the world through Heart Care International Inc. (HCI) were anxious to meet her. She would be the first patient that the group would face without the use of their traditional kinds of monitors and safety devices.

Her surgery was a success. By the end of the day, she was sitting up with a lollipop in her mouth. The next morning the little girl was out of bed – still wearing her soft pajamas – and walking down a bright pink hallway with her parents.

A Heart Care International Inc. pillow was placed in the bed with each recovering heart-surgery patient.

"She was just holding her mom's hand and smiling," Relle said. "That was the moment where everyone thought, 'This is exactly why we're here.'"

Relle and Sievert's 20-person HCI group included medical professionals from Oregon, Georgia, Arizona, Texas and Ohio.

Two medical school students joined Relle from New York. They all had the same mission: to help save children with congenital heart defects through surgery and to train local nurses, physicians and perfusionists to take care of patients from start to finish.

"In addition to saving children's lives, the Peruvian medical team was taught how to diagnose the problem, perform the surgery and provide follow-up care with patients," Sievert said. "It's a two-fold goal."

Alicia Sievert, an MUSC pediatric perfusionist and a former assistant professor in the College of Health Professions, said the best part of the trip was being able to share the experience with a student.

The patients are selected by HCI officials based on the difficulty of their required surgery and the ability to teach a technique that the Peruvian surgeons had never seen before. But the trip wasn't just about making the Peruvians more proficient.

"Here, in the U.S., we rely a lot on technology for things I would take for granted — we have level detectors and bubble alarms, those are things that affect patient care. Over there we didn't have those things," Relle said. "Over there you have to think 'what am I going to do, how am I going to build it and where am I going to put things?' If something went wrong in the states, I could now adjust it with a more ready and creative mind."

Second-year MUSC perfusion student Margaret Relle uses medical tape to maintain parts of the heart-lung bypass machine.

That kind of hands-on experience and interaction with poverty-stricken patients is why Sievert, who has now been on five HCI mission trips, requested to bring a perfusion student along.

"It was so humbling and moving that you could actually help all these children so freely," Sievert said. "Helping that one child is helping a huge family and all their friends who have to deal with this sick child. To be able to share that with a student was the best part for me."

Perfusionists — medical professionals that run the heart-lung bypass machine during heart surgeries — are rare in Third World countries. There are only 12 perfusionists in Peru, while there are roughly 3,500 in the United States, according to Relle.

"Sometimes we'd find ourselves using medical tape to put things together," Relle said. "Going away to another country answers the question, 'What could I do if something stopped working?'"

Other parts of trip were also unconventional for the pair.

After eating breakfast at the hotel each morning, the HCI group piled onto a bus and rode to the hospital. How they got there and back was a secret that only the driver knew.

"It's a bunch of wealthy Americans wearing white coats on a bus," Sievert said. "So, they never take the same route to the hospital because they're afraid that someone is going to high jack the bus."

Armed guards were stationed at the front of the hospital and certain places were surrounded by cinderblock walls with broken glass on top to keep out trespassers. But overall, Sievert and Relle said they felt safe.

"Peru was a very clean country and everyone had a lot of Peruvian pride," Sievert said. In addition to taking care of patients, the group visited several cathedrals and catacombs. Sievert also went to Machu Picchu before leaving on Oct. 30, 2012.

"I'll go back to Peru in a heartbeat. It was a humbling experience. The Peruvians come from a lot less," Relle said. "I was amazed at what they can do there with what they have. If they can perform cardiac surgery with next to nothing than they're pretty amazing people."

Friday, Jan. 25, 2013