We collected Taleen and her escort at the Gaza Crossing point for her echo at Sheba Hospital.
Taleen is an independent spirit, if anything. She soon set out on her own to explore as much of the pediatric cardiology floor as she could, which wasn’t much but still. She went around exploring, looking at other kids but not letting them get too close, and snacking, lots of snacking. She kept her Bomba, a popular snack food here in Israel, in her hands at all times. Another boy there who had to fast for his echo, tried to get some but luckily Taleen was way too fast for him.
After a speedy echo with our good-natured little girl, the doctors came in with the news and next steps for treatment. It looks like Taleen has recovered well from her last few procedures, and doctors are ready to begin preparing for her Fontan procedure with some tests. They will see her in about three months for another echo, and a dental hygiene check-up before that. For the time being she can live her life as the independent, adventurous little girl God made her to be.
Taleen came for her follow-up on Wednesday, much to the joy of my coworkers. She showed up armed with a frilly pink dress, big sunglasses, and a huge smile, and she and Lena and Elise got along great. She got along great with everyone all day in fact, not making a single peep during any of her examinations, eagerly helping her father and the doctors wherever she could, and bouncing on the waiting table on the meantime.
And good news from the examination–she’s looking great! Her health is wonderful and there are no present worries. She’ll be back in three months for her next follow-up, and we’ll look forward to this beautiful, healthy child again then.
It was a glorious morning today as I collected Taleen and her mother and father from Erez crossing. The ride to the hospital was enjoyable on this lovely spring day as we shuffled quietly through the traffic on our way to Sheba Hospital for Taleen’s echo appointment.
Taleen enjoyed time in the waiting area playing while we waited for her turn.
The ECHO and ECG went smoothly and Taleen was a model patient.
After a lot more waiting we received the good news that everything seems to be going well.
Nice to welcome Taleen back to Israel after a few weeks. Today she had an echo and an ECG on the schedule at Sheba Medical. Meanwhile, she was very brave and didn’t even cry like the previous times.
Taleen later played in the waiting area with an older girl who also had a check-up appointment.
When I later asked the doctor about the results of today’s examinations, I got a short answer: `She looks wonderful! We just adjusted the medication slightly and would like to see her again in three months.`
Good news, thank the Lord! Please pray that Taleen will continue to do so well!
Right before the beginning of the Shabbat, sweet little Taleen was discharged from Sheba Hospital after a successful catheterization.
By the time the team arrived from Ashdod with our van, Taleen and her father were already set to go home and were sitting outside waiting for us! It really warms your heart to see Taleen and her sweet face. She did her best to help her dad with all their bags and held a plastic bag really tight in her little hand and made sure that she didn’t lose it at any point.
Please help us to continue to pray for Taleen and her family! Our Lord is a good Father who keeps his children close to himself!
Before we arrived at Sheba Hospital this morning, little Taleen was already out of her catheterization. It was only diagnostic and went well.
Taleen was peacefully sleeping in her room in the secondary ICU when we visited her, and her doctors think that she can go home already tomorrow again.
Thanking God for this successful cath. Bless this cute girl and her dad!
Little Taleen waited for us at the Erez border to be picked up for her admission to Sheba hospital. She will have a cath tomorrow.
While in the hospital waiting for her admission, Taleen made some friends. Even the nurses for the blood test were charmed by her cute outfit and smile.
We pray for a good procedure tomorrow so that Taleen can share her beautiful smile with the people around her for a long time.
This morning coworker Jakob and I picked up cute Taleen and her dad at the Erez boarder crossing.
We brought them to Sheba Hospital for an echo, ECG and two blood tests – one before she took one of her medications, and one three hours after she took the medicine.
Taleen just has a blood clot caused by lipoproteins. For now this is fine, but she will need a catheterization soon. As always, everyone in the hospital was very happy to see cute Taleen again.
After a long day, we brought her back to Gaza again, but as soon as possible the hospital will give us an appointment for a catheterization for her. In the meantime let us pray that she will stay safe with her family!
Our little friend Taleen went today back to Gaza! Today we had her last appointment to see how the Clexane levels were in her blood. The doctor made a few changes in the medicine and then they were ready to go!
Little Taleen was dancing in the hall with her friend and she was very happy.
Taleen’s father, who was the other day very disappointed because he could not go to Gaza, was also shining today! When we were waiting for the doctor, his father started to make fun and said that we were all together going to go to Germany.
May the Lord bless this cute little girl and her full recovery!
In the morning, when we arrived at Sheba Hospital, Taleen was already patiently waiting for her discharge. She was playing with a little friend for a while. They were so cute together.
Taleen still had to have a blood test before the doctors could say if she will be discharged. But thank God the results were fine. She will now stay with us in Ashdod until Sunday. Then she is going to have another blood test, because the doctors want to keep an eye on her Clexane levels as she is really dependent on them. Her Dad is a little frustrated that they still can not go home to Gaza.
While waiting long hours for the medicine which Taleen needed to take home, we played a little with her and she showed us several times her beautiful smile.
Please pray for Taleen that her Clexane levels will be alright and her result for the blood test on Sunday will be good so that she can go home soon. You can also remember her dad in your prayers as he urgently wants to go home.
Sweet Taleen is still driving around in Sheba Hospital with her wheelchair. But today she decided to push it herself. She knows exactly what she wants and was advising coworker Doro how to help her with pushing the wheelchair.
In the morning she was a little bit shy, but after some hours she even threw us kisses. Unfortunately her clexane levels are still too low. So she will have to stay in the hospital two more days and then they will do another blood test.
Please pray for patience for her and her father and that she can go back home soon.
Sweet Taleen is stable after her catheterization at Sheba Medical Center on Thursday evening.
She is taking a medicine called Clexane, and the levels of it in her blood test aren’t the way the doctors want them to be, so they’re hoping to stabilize that in the next few days, and possibly discharge her on Tuesday.
She’s still roaming the halls in her wheelchair as her father pushes her. Today, another child was in the waiting room as well. Both of their fathers tried to get them to make friends with each other, though Taleen didn’t seem super excited about it.
Please pray that Taleen’s Clexane levels will even out and that she will be safely discharged soon.
Today Taleen had a late evening cath at Sheba Hospital to widen one side of her pulmonary artery in order to increase her oxygen levels. The cath was successful, and the doctors hope to see her recover well over the weekend in time to be discharged next week.
Please pray that she will have a good recovery and that this cath will result in consistently high oxygen levels.
Beautiful red-haired Taleen is in the Secondary ICU of Sheba Medical Center’s Children Hospital since a few days ago and doesn’t even need oxygen support anymore.
Taleen has recovered really well since her surgery and we saw her father walking around with her in his arms or pushing her in a wheelchair around the hospital these last days, since she is doing so much better. It is always a joy to see her doing better and better.
The doctors have thought about discharging her already, but they still want to do an X-ray and another test, so she will be most likely discharged at the beginning of next week.
May this be our prayer for Taleen, that her recovery proceeds to be so good and that she can be discharged soon
Taleen is slowly but surely recovering in the Sheba Children’s Hospital ICU after her big surgery last week. The doctor told me that they are happy about her recovery especially as it was such a complicated surgery.
She will still need some time but maybe they can talk at the end of the week already about discharging her. She was awake when we visited her today, and even though she is still very weak, we could play a little with her. Most of the time she was only looking at her dad though.
Please continue praying for a full recovery for this cute little girl!
Tatiana and I found beautiful Taleen asleep in the ICU with her father at her bedside this afternoon. Her dad was happy to report that she’s doing well after surgery. The bleeding she was experiencing after the operation has stopped, and the doctors are decreasing her sedation medicines. Her blood pressure is still not quite stable, but the doctors are optimistic and hope to extubate her soon.
Update: A photo from Taleen’s father this evening shows she has been successfully extubated!
Taleen’s second surgery Tuesday was expected to last five hours, but eight and a half hours passed before the lead surgeon finally emerged. The first thing he said was it was a hard surgery, with many objectives. Taleen’s pulmonary arteries were enlarged, her circulation was rerouted through a quasi-Glenn operation, and work was also done with two valves of her heart.
The echo done at the end of the surgery showed her heart was functioning well; the relief on her father’s face was evident. The next hours will be critical as there was still some internal bleeding evident through her drainage tubes after her chest was closed.
Today, we brought little Taleen to Sheba hospital where she was admitted for her surgery tomorrow morning.
After an ECG and x-ray, a doctor came to explain to her dad what surgery they are exactly planning to do. Taleen’s heart is very complicated as she has a combination of various heart defects. Her aorta is connected to the right ventricle of the heart instead of to the left one, and so her right ventricle is doing all the work. She has holes between the lower chambers of her heart and also between the upper ones, as well as a few other problems. This means that her surgery will not be so easy and we need to pray that God will give the doctors success!
Taleen is such a cute little girl and with her beautiful red hair, everyone in the hospital loves her. God please protect her tomorrow!
Today, coworker Hanna and I drove to Sheba hospital to pick up cute Taleen and her dad and bring them back to Gaza. She is doing very well and is already discharged after her diagnostic cath yesterday.
In the beginning of next week, the doctors will have a meeting to discuss her case and then they will probably call her soon for her next surgery. For now, we pray that she will have a good time with her family in Gaza and she will be safe until she returns for her surgery!
Today, coworker Hanna and I picked up a little beautiful Taleen and her dad at Erez Crossing Point to bring them to Sheba Hospital. Taleen was admitted for a cath tomorrow.
During the echo and ECG, Taleen was calm and only cried a little bit. She is such a cute darling girl. Taleen will need this cath as a diagnosis before her heart surgery. In the cath three months ago, she wasn’t suitable for surgery because she has very high pressure in her lungs.
Taleen was happy when she finally was in her room in the Secondary ICU. She warmed up more and more. We pray for the cath tomorrow and for wisdom for the doctors.
This afternoon coworker Hanna and I were driving to Sheba Hospital to pick up cute Taleen and her dad. She was discharged and the doctors want to see her again in two month, so we brought her back to Gaza.
When we left the secondary ICU, she was saying goodbye to a lot of nurses and they have been all really happy for her that she can go home.
Let’s continue in prayer for little Taleen and her family!
Today coworker Rachel and I found Taleen and her father walking down the hallway in the ICU of Sheba Medical. Taleen is a gorgeous girl and she is doing well after her diagnostic catheterization yesterday.
Tomorrow she will have a CT scan which the doctors can then use to decide what needs to be done next for Taleen.
Taleen went into a diagnostic catheterization at Sheba Hospital today. The cath went well, and the doctors will discuss now what the next steps are for her.
We ask for your prayer for the doctors dealing with little Taleen, for their discernment and wisdom in this treatment.
Today coworker Celina and I drove to the Erez Border Crossing with Gaza to pick up Taleen and her dad.
At Sheba Medical Center, I went with them to Taleen’s scheduled echo; Taleen is a really smart girl and she knows exactly what she wants and what she doesn’t want, especially not the echo.
I went with them to her ECG and also to the x-Ray.
After these appointments, we got Taleen’s room and she was admitted. Everything went well. So far, doctors are looking to perform a catheterization tomorrow.
Taleen was very happy about the present she got, and loved the balloon most of all. I’m very thankful for the nice and happy time I spent with her and her father.
Please pray for her catheterization tomorrow, that everything works out well for Taleen, and that her father is going to have a blessed waiting time during the operation.
Little Ms. Taleen had a great women’s day trip to Israel with her grandma today. Two weeks ago my wife Anna and I dropped them off at the Gaza border. Today, the first follow up echo after her surgery was scheduled, and again it was the two of us who escorted her.
Also others, like the mother of little Mahmoud, another baby from Gaza, were glad to see them again. The doctor was very satisfied with Taleen’s condition, she is really very well, except for her cute little sniffle.
Her oxygen level was at 92%, which is very good. Now the doctor wants to wait till she is a little bit taller and to see how she develops. Thank God for this beautiful miracle of life.
Taleen was returning home today. This wonderful little girl is a good example for a pretty perfect procedure. Twelve day’s ago she arrived in a sick condition in Israel with her very unsettled grandma. After her surgery we could see how she was doing better every day. Now she is stable for discharging, and to head back home, where she can relax now with her parents. In a few weeks she will come back for the next step. Thank you Lord for this blessed run!
It was fun to visit Taleen and her grandma today at the hospital. The grandma feels familiar now that I have met her for many days over the last week. This is the first time that I have seen Taleen properly awake, and she was making her grandma work hard, as she was quite upset. She has been moved into the secondary ICU, and as I observed her crying for milk, without many medications, cables and tubes surrounding her, she looked just like any other beautiful baby, rather than a tiny hospital inpatient.
Hopefully by this time next week Taleen will be reunited with her family in Gaza, who she doesn’t yet know, but I’m sure are all praying for her and waiting for her to return home.
Can you believe this is a little girl who was in the operating room having heart surgery just yesterday? Less than 24 hours later, Taleen is extubated and waking up from her sleep occasionally. She has started to have milk via an NG tube, and maybe later on today can start drinking milk.
During the time we were visting her, a few different staff members came in to check her, or change a dressing… Perhaps they also had a hidden agenda that they wanted to come and admire this sweet beautiful red headed baby.
For our little Taleen, it was an exciting day at Sheba Hospital. At nine o’clock, the first of three sur-geries started. When we arrived at twelve o’clock, we met her grandmother in the waiting area, she was very tense. I could see the fear in her eyes, but simultaneously the trust that the doctors will help her little princess. As another Gaza-Grandma passed by, they both went to the praying room and left co-worker Lisa and me behind. HOPE.
A short time later, Dr. Katz came from the operating room, but he was not so communicative: “The surgery went well. No complications.” Grandma was very relieved. The usually calm and reserved granny couldn’t do anything else but hug Lisa. Now the hope is strong! Taleen will be back soon! But then the waiting starts again. Seconds, minutes, hours. As for me and Lisa, our thoughts were briefly looking back on Mustafa… he had many complications that he couldn’t overcome and he died. DOUBT.
Approximately 2:00 p.m. Taleen came back to her room, all things went well. TAKE A BREATH. Later, she opened her eyes. If everything goes right, she can go back home in a few days to recover and prepare for the next surgery. HOPE.
Taleen’s heart is incredibly complex. The doctors are planning a surgery to place a band that helps reduce the pressure in the pulmonary artery and to fix the narrowing of her aorta, a major artery that supplies oxygen to the rest of her precious three-kilogram body. This would be the first step, and she would later need, potentially, two other surgeries when she grows older. The surgery date is still to be determined.
Her grandmother exclaimed at how beautiful Taleen is, and I thought about how God the Father sees her with an indescribable love. It amazes me to simply ponder upon how God created Taleen, and how He knows every detail of the time He’s prepared for her. We pray that God would be glorified through Taleen’s story, and that her family would feel the Father’s presence throughout her journey.
A new Gaza baby has safely arrived in Sheba Hospital today. Co-worker Markus and I were blessed with the privilege of welcoming tiny Taleen.
As we stepped into the ICU, we did not know if it was a boy or girl or who the guardian might be. We were sent to a room and found our new baby. The beautiful girl we encountered took my breath away. Her small face and her sparse reddish hair are in perfect harmony. She is an astonishingly beautiful creation from our Father in heaven. Little Taleen has already taken on a very long trip with being only five days old. She is accompanied by her grandmother who greeted us warmly.
I was once again amazed by the love of the grandparents who accompany their grandchildren on this unknown and long journey, fully focusing on making the children feeling save. Taleen’s grandmother had to leave behind her family and the safety of her own home, freely choosing an unknown and over-whelming environment. Regardless of all these new and confusing experiences, Taleen’s grandmother smiled at us and her granddaughter.
The doctor told me that there were some mistakes in the medical report and that he has to confirm with the doctor in Gaza. Therefore they were not able to work out a treatment plan yet. But even though we might not know exactly what her body is dealing with, her Father in heaven knows. He Looks at her with so much love and he sees every single cell that is not working or not in the right place as it should. He will never miss a thing about her and He knows exactly how her time in Israel will continue.
Taleen already has the most amazing identity with her few days of life: she is a princess, the daughter of the most high King. It amazes me every time to meet these wonderful children and to be a witness of the amazing things God has put into them and the stories He has written. We can be sure that we don’t need to understand everything because He does and He is caring with so much love. Little Taleen will always lay in the safest place of all: God’s arms.
We collected Taleen and her escort at the Gaza Crossing point for her echo at Sheba Hospital.
