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December 19, 2005 - 2:00pm

First of Four Life-Saving Heart Operations on Iraqi Children Called "a Success" by CHAM Surgeon

(December 19, 2005  2:00pm) New York, NY- At a news briefing today at The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM), Samuel Weinstein, MD, director of pediatric cardiothoracic surgery, announced that life-saving heart surgery performed that morning on Wsim Rabea, age 11, was "a success". 

“The pressure in Wsim's heart was three times normal going into the operating room, and he was fainting every time he exerted himself," said Dr. Weinstein.  "After we removed the obstruction below his aortic valve, his pressure returned to normal.  He is breathing on his own and doing well."

"Best of all, he's up and awake and he's already bargaining with his father about when he can play football (soccer) again,” said Dr. Weinstein, just two hours after the procedure.

Wsim is the first of four Iraqi children who will be operated on this week at CHAM for various life-threatening heart conditions. 

"If these conditions were to continue untreated, these children would not make it to adulthood," said Dr. Weinstein.   

"This is a miracle and we are overwhelmed," said Rabea H. Abo Senda, Wsim's father, through an interpreter.  "The American people are very affectionate.  We can see when we look in their eyes that they love our children as if our children are their own children."

The children and their fathers came to The Children's Hospital at Montefiore through the combined efforts of:  Sergeant Marikay Satryano, a Bronx school teacher from Tarrytown now on active duty in the US Army Reserves in Amman, Jordan, and assigned to the Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Center in Amman; the Gift of Life International, a humanitarian arm of Rotary International, which arranges treatment for children needing heart care around the world; and the Rachel B. Cooper Foundation, which provides funds for research at Montefiore for children with congenital heart disease.  Physicians and other medical personnel volunteered their services in Jordan, and with the support of Montefiore Dr. Weinstein, a world-renowned pediatric heart surgeon, agreed to donate his services.  The Gift of Life and Rachel B. Cooper Foundation are helping with the cost of the hospitalizations.

 “This is a special moment for our medical center...to have our pediatric heart team perform lifesaving open-heart surgery on children from the Iraqi war zone and give these children a new chance at a long and healthy life," said Steven Safyer, MD, senior vice president and chief medical officer at Montefiore. 

Sergeant Satryano, who first accompanied the children and their fathers from Baghdad to Amman for initial tests and then came to the United States, said of the Iraqi families:
“We have been through a lot together, laughed together and we are family.  Bringing these families here today is one of the quiet acts of goodness that is not recognized very often in the war in Iraq.”

Scheduled for surgery on Tuesday, December 20th is Sivar Mohammed, age 6, a boy who has a heart condition known as Tetralogy of Fallot which leads to decreased blood flow to the lungs; and Asaid S. Abd. Sibreai, age 12, a boy who has a condition involving his atrioventricular canal (a hole in the upper chambers of the heart).   Scheduled for surgery Wednesday, December 21 is Ashjan Khaled, a 12-year-old girl, who has a condition known as ventricular septal defect, a large hole in the wall between the left and right ventricles.

Information about the children's medical conditions will be posted here throughout their stay at The Children's Hospital at Montefiore.