STETHOSCOPES FOR
PERU
The
Stethoscope Project is basically a small part of our overall project to help
make people in the San Martin Province of Peru aware of the need to check
children, and adults, for signs of congenital heart disease, and to provide for
them the means to do it, using their own resources. I have a dear friend in Juanjui, Peru, her
name is "Dr" Ingrid. She is not a real doctor, but a registered
midwife. However, for 95% of the women and many of the children in the town of
Juanjui and the river villages, she is their doctor.
Ingrid
asked me last year to help her find a Cardiologist that could come to
Juanjui. She feels there are a lot of
undiagnosed cardiac issues among the population there. Women give birth,
usually at home, and the child is likely never seen by a doctor. Thus many
illnesses go undetected, as well as recognition of cardiac issues, treatable at
a young age if discovered. Many adults
also show signs of cardiac disease but there is no doctor nor any close clinics
or healthcare facilities where they can go, even if the financial resources
were available.
A Cardiologist friend,
now volunteering fulltime in China, Dr Robert Detrano, from UCLA Med School,
wrote an article regarding the easiest way to make this happen in developing
countries. Dr Bob's model includes Stethoscope screening of school children. Thus
starts the Juanjui Cardiac Project. The Stethoscopes for Peru is the first step
in the project.
There is a small
Nursing School in Juanjui and The Luz Fund enjoys a close working relationship
with the administrator, Dr Vasquez. But
Stethoscope training is likely not understood well enough to allow the students
to recognize cardiac issues when they hear them. Our plan is to give the nursing students
thorough instruction on Stethoscope heart sounds. Then to use those students in a program
described by Dr Detrano, in the schools in the province of San Martin(Juanjui
and the river villages). Those students
registering positive indicators will be further reviewed locally by a Luz Fund
volunteer ECHO Tech and Cardiologist. Those still positive have already been
pre-approved for referral to the Los Ninos Children’s Hospital, Lima, for
followup, or to the heart team of Heart Care International(HCI). HCI is a heart team from New York that visits
Los Ninos Hospital twice each year to perform free heart surgeries on children
who would otherwise never receive treatment, through no fault of their own.
I have been extremely
fortunate, since we started this planning, to have a Portable Diagnostic
Ultrasound Machine, a Seimens Acuson Cypress, donated to our organization, The
Luz Fund. Now I need to obtain some good quality Stethoscopes, and Pulse/Ox
probes, that can be utilized in the project. I feel that once started, this
project can be carried on by local healthcare workers in a self sustaining
manner, and that a person can be trained locally to obtain good results with
the portable ECHO. The results will help innumerable people, who at present,
have no awareness of the potential problems they may have.
Tentative dates for implementing the program in Juanjui are September/October
2014.
I would be
extremely grateful for any assistance you may be able to provide or to suggest.
If you would like to be included on a future trip to Peru with us, just ask.
Chuck Mulhern, The
Luz Fund
