Return To Romania, 2005
Going Back With A New Echodoppler
When we left the Institute of Cardiovascular Disease at the Clinic Fundeni Hospital in
Bucharest, Romania, in May 2002 we asked Dr. Alin Nicolescu, M.D., the pediatric cardiologist
at Clinic Fundeni, and Dr. Andrei Iosifescu, M.D., the pediatric heart surgeon, what they
needed the most to continue helping the children who are born with highly complicated, life-threatening
heart defects.
They gave us a list of some specific needs: a few specialized medical journals and books, some surgical
instruments, and an echodoppler that would help them to better see the tiny hearts and blood vessels.
We gave them our word that we'd come home and do everything within our power to raise support to find these
few things that would make such a positive, huge difference for them and for the lives of the children.
It took only a few weeks to get a couple of publishing companies to donate subscriptions to the medical
journals. The companies that sell the surgical instruments did not respond to our requests. But now, after
three years, the biggest prayer has been answered: Tom Mitchell and Sergei Mirolioubov of Siemens Medical Solutions'
Ultrasound Division have given Gift Of Life International an Acuson Cypress echodoppler to give to the clinic
in Bucharest! In just a few days, we'll be hand-carrying the unit to Bucharest and handing it over to
Dr. Alin Nicolescu.
The key to this finally happening after three long years of asking turned out to be Dr. Tory Meyer, a pediatric
surgeon here in Austin who heard about our efforts and about the clinic in Bucharest. Tory's the one who called
Tom Mitchell, and Tom's the one who took the ball and ran with it at Siemens, and Sergei is the person at Siemens who
found a Cypress to dedicate to Romania. But if it weren't for Tory, the pieces would never have come together.
So today we asked Tory to please drop by the house and check out the Cypress before we fly off to Romania with it. After
his daughter's soccer game they came by and we unpacked it and fired it up. We didn't have any lubricant for the
transducer (where the metal probe makes contact with the skin) so we improvised and used just a spot of vegetable oil from the kitchen. Within a couple of minutes of opening
the case, in the bright sunshine of the foyer of our house, Tory showed his son a live picture of the inside of his beating
heart.
The Cypress worked great! The image on the screen is bright and clear. Tory pushed a few buttons and in a flash
it changed from black and white to color, and the color showed "flow," or where the blood was flowing through the heart's vessels. As
he put the compact unit through its paces, he explained each step to his kids as they looked at live images of a beating
heart, and then what a liver looks like, and then peeked at vessels in their wrists and arms. While it's clearly a sophisticated piece
of scientific instrumentation, it was wonderful to watch the Cypress being used in the hands of an artist who, with just a twist of the wrist and
a slide of the transducer, was able to see deep inside the smallest places.
And in just a few days, we'll be able to see Dr. Nicolescu take it out of the box in Bucharest and put it thorugh its paces again,
only this time the probe will slide across the chest of a small Romanian child who has come to Clinic Fundeni for live-saving care. And we'll be there
to watch, and to photograph it as it happens, and we'll put the pictures and stories right here so you can appreciate this
answered prayer as much as we do.
When we were in Bucharest with Dr. Alin three years ago the Romanian children stole my heart, but it was the pediatricians,
surgeons, and critical care nurses at the Institute of Cardiovascular Disease at the Clinic Fundeni Hospital who earned my undying respect.
They were doing a remarkable job with about one-tenth of the resources found at even the smallest hospital in the States. The
doctors and nurses who had turned down offers to go to France, Canada, and the States to earn more money
had stayed in Romania because of their dedication to the children and to their dream of building a
children's heart foundation and pediatric medical program for their country.
Gift Of Life International is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, tax-exempt charity.
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Any amount will help move us toward their goals, and no contribution is too small. Please write to Gift Of Life International
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On their behalf, we thank you so very much. -- Donald Winslow
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