Last year, we received support from Variety Children's Lifeline, a foundation interested in sponsoring international missions. At the same time, we talked with John Paar about what he was doing in Leon. Two other physicians, one from Wake Med, also participated. For the next 15 days, the team spent much of their time treating patients. In all, they saw 143 children, many of whom had walked as many as a dozen hours to get to the hospital after being alerted about the visit of the Duke doctors.
Malaria is also a problem.
There is little water treatment in the communities outside of Leon. For the children, it was the first time they had ever seen a pediatric cardiology specialist. One purpose of the screenings, Myrick said, was to identify those children who could be helped by surgery. All received cardiology examinations, and 12 were selected to receive open heart surgery from Ross Ungerleider, MD, and others. All are expected to live normal, healthy lives, Myrick said.