Day 4: Celebrity Spotting

Today was our last day at Roosevelt Hospital this week. The past four days have truly flown by and, as Kelsey mentioned as we were leaving this afternoon, we’re going to miss the hospital until we return on Monday. 

Our day at the hospital was fairly different than the previous days. We, of course, continued working on equipment repair, today entirely focusing on ventilators.

We definitely hit some dead ends today but still managed to end the day declaring one more vent ready to use.

In the midst of our repairs, Dr. Barnoya stopped by to check-in with us. Dr. Barnoya is always extremely informative and gives us a different perspective than anyone else we’ve talked to. As part of our discussion covering our progress, future plans, and questions we discussed where exactly to donate the 5 portable finger-pulse oximeters we had purchased with the money we had raised through various WUGI fundraisers throughout the year. Dr. Barnoya told us all about a study being done in UNICAR (the cardiology center attached to Roosevelt) that would greatly benefit from pulse oximeters. This study’s goal is to improve doctors abilities to diagnose congenital heart disease in infants. 

Meeting Dr. Aldo Castañeda

He brought us directly to meet with Dr. Aldo Castañeda a world-renowned cardiac surgeon. My meeting with Dr. Castañeda was one of the highlights of last years trip and I am so glad the rest of the team got to meet him today. Castaneda is probably the celebrity I am proudest of meeting in my entire life. He has published over 400 scientific articles and 2 books and, in 1942, he successfully achieved the world’s first every heart-lung bypass surgery in a child. Now he is working at UNICAR in Guatemala City and is largely responsible what UNICAR is today. Even just walking into the doors of UNICAR it is evident it is better funded- a direct a result of Castaneda who also founded La Fundación Aldo Castaneda which has a general goal to create a sustainable system of pediatric cardiac care in Guatemala and Latin America. To learn more about his foundation visit: http://www.fundacionaldocastaneda.org/ver_noticias.php Or, if you’re interested in donating visit:

http://saveachildshearttoday.org/Friends_of_the_Aldo_Castaneda_Foundation/Home_page.html. Castaneda had never seen the type of oximeters we had brought and legitimately seemed amazed and kept repeating that absolutely every doctor should have one. We met with the director of the study and he too was excited about oximeters. We left, refreshed and rejuvenated after a pep talk by Castaneda who insisted the work we were doing was exactly what the hospital system needed and with a goal to fundraise to purchase more oximeters, for both infants and children in general.

It's incredible to know that our fundraising has paid off!

In future trips I am confident we will work with UNICAR on some of their trouble equipment such as their catheters and sterilization equipment.

We are looking forward to going and spending a day a la universidad del valle tomorrow.

"USA Chicas out"-Connie