Little Dahen is now living with us in our Jerusalem community home for almost exactly one month and every day with him is filled with pure joy. Even if he is crying, it is easy to cheer him up with tickling or just hugging him. He loves to play with us, to watch his mother working in the kitchen and to just spend time outside in the sun. He is a child that doesn’t need much to be happy and we are so thankful for him and his lovely mother to be part of our community. They are lighting up every single day of ours.
Next week is Dahen’s long-awaited Echo appointment at Hadassah Hospital. God willing the doctor will discharge him and his mother back home to Kurdistan. She can’t wait to get home, as she also has another son who is having his tonsillectomy. The past few days she was very sad about not being able to be with him. But we are trying our best to he there for her.
Please pray for good results next Monday, that Dahen doesn’t need further interventions, and especially for Dahen’s mother, who is worried about her other son in Kurdistan. May the Lord give her comfort and peace about this whole situation.
Today our little Dahen got discharged from Hadassah Medical Center! Though he only stayed for six days in the hospital, he was tired of it and as soon as we came home he was sporting a big smile on his face!
But before that, his day has been very long: he had an X-Ray, an Echo, and at both appointments he wasn’t happy at all. Also when we woke him for checking his vitals, he cried all the time. And then we had to wait for hours. The doctors needed a lot of time to decide how to treat him properly now and when his next appointment should take place and they had to write his report. Until all of those things were done and we got all the needed information, we played a lot together.
We were walking through Hadassah’s hallways and had a small afternoon snack.
Finally we got the report and asked our last questions, so at 6PM we could leave the hospital and took the bus to the guesthouse. Dahen enjoyed it in the beginning and was pointing outside whenever he saw something interesting, but because it was a 45 minute bus ride, he got tired after some time and was happy when we left it again.
When we came home to our guesthouse, Dahan’s mother was organizing their stuff and Dahen immediately started playing. His face was full of joy! After those hard days in the hospital it was good to see him like that. In two weeks his next Echo will take place so the doctors can see if he is ready to go home to Kurdistan. Praise the Lord Dahen could finally leave the hospital. He is such a caring and loving God, he is worthy of all praise!
This weekend, Dahen recovered pretty fast from his open-heart surgery on Thursday in Hadassah Medical Center. During the night, after it he was extubated, step by step they removed all the other tubes. On Friday afternoon, I saw him laying there almost completely free and you could see that when he was awake, he was moving a lot! His mother barely left him alone and was always in his room, sometimes looking tired but always there for her beloved son.
So yesterday I got her message that Dahen was brought out of the ICU and has a normal room now. He is sure taking huge steps forward. Indeed, when I came into the Pediatric Ward, Dahen was sitting there on his bed, laughing together with his mother. He looked at me with his big eyes and I couldn’t help but play a bit with him until his mother asked if I wanted to go to the mall with them to buy some candy for Dahen.
He really enjoyed his time outside of the bed, seeing other people and especially all those toys and candy and he surely liked the money the most. When we were back in his room, his nurse said Dahen can leave the hospital tomorrow. Before his discharge, he will need an X-Ray and a last Echo but then he will be ready to go. He won’t need any medication but Fusid, which is pretty normal after a surgery. It will reduce possible fluids around his heart.
Later that day, coworker Berith came to the hospital to visit and Dahen’s mother was so happy to see her again! We kept on playing with Dahen and his candy. It was hard to say goodbye but with knowing that they will come back tomorrow, we still had a smile on our faces.
Let’s pray for our little boy, that the last tests tomorrow won’t scare him too much. Thank our loving and caring God that Dahen is safe, recovering really fast and can come home to us so soon!
Today was a big day for Dahen: he went into his surgery! He has DORV (double outlet right ventricle) which means that the wall between his left and right ventricles is non existent. So the surgeons wanted to close this big hole today.
Dahen was picked up from his room very early in the morning and was brought to the surgery preparation room. I was meeting him and his lovely mother there and against my expectations, he barely seemed to be afraid. Sometimes, when his mother stood too far away, he searched for comfort in her arms, but mostly he played with me. We had a really fun time together and it felt good to take away some of the tension from his mother. But as soon as the paperwork was done and his surgeons were all there, he was brought to the surgery room. I wasn’t allowed to go with him, but his mother was there for him until he fell asleep.
From then we had to wait for several hours. It was really hard for his mother, she was crying a few times and barely spoke a word, always watching at the door, waiting for her sons surgeon to tell her that the surgery was over. And after already four hours he came. He let us know that everything went well, they could close the gap and they were about to close his chest. Dahens mother cried, she hugged me and immediately called her family to tell them those good news. This moment was so precious and priceless, seeing a mother full of true joy is a pure, peaceful feeling full of love.
After hearing this good news, we were going upstairs to see our beloved boy again. He looked really good and peaceful, without the bandage and all those wires you would never believe he just came out of an open-heart surgery. For now he is really stable; he had some fever this afternoon, but it’s nearly disappeared now. The doctors want to extubate him tomorrow if possible.
Please pray for Dahen to recover really well without any complications, and that he can be extubated tomorrow. Also let us bring Dahen’s mother before the Lord, that he will give her peace and some rest after this long and exhausting day. Let’s also gather in thanking our Father for the surgeons, that the surgery went well and for all the staff in the pediatric ICU, who’ve been taking care of our little warrior!
Today was Dahen’s long-awaited admission for his surgery at Hadassah Medical Center. We already left the Jerusalem Guesthouse in the morning and checked him in.
As soon as the papers were ready, Dahen had to go through a lot of tests.
He liked some of them, for example, the ECG, where the nurse tickled him to distract him from all the stickers. But he also hated some of the tests. The Covid test for example, where he got the little rod in his nose, and the blood test, those were the worst. He cried and screamed, so we had to hold him tight, which wasn’t nice.
Especially his mother felt with him, but after every single test, she managed to cheer him up again, gave him hugs and kisses and made him smile. Every minute they spent together you could see their great bond and the trust that Dahen has in his mother. And as soon as every test was done and a very kind nurse explained to his mother what will happen to Dahen before and after the surgery, he was able to go to a kind of school in Hadassah.
He was playing games and painted together with his mother. That was the time for me to say goodbye.
For tonight they will stay in their room in Hadassah and tomorrow morning Dahen’s surgery will begin. Please pray for our little boy, that the Lord will keep him safe tomorrow and will also bring peace over Dahen’s mother, who is really worried. But let’s not forget to thank our God! He has given this mother and her son a great bond and lots of love they can share, for He is the source of love!
After almost one week of waiting, Dahen finally had his first echo at Hadassah Hospital. Since they arrived to Israel last week, Dahen’s mother has been asking us almost every day about his surgery, as well as when will we go to the hospital with Dahen. But today was finally the day! After the echo, Dahen’s mother talked via a translator with the doctor and asked him all the questions she had about the surgery and about Dahen’s condition.
Because of his cough, Dahen will get his surgery next week, so that he has time to recover. His lungs are not really free and will require medicine in the meantime. His doctor was also really glad to tell us that Dahen’s surgery will be an easy one. Still the surgery is really important for him. The doctor mentioned that Dahen can’t live with his heart defect much longer. His mother now knows the importance of this surgery which she has been looking forward to for a long time now.
Thankfully Dahen’s mother is much more relaxed now that she finally saw a doctor. We are slowly getting to know her better and better. I am always excited to learn new Kurdish words from her. Often we end up laughing because of funny misunderstandings or just because we don’t understand anything from each other.
Please pray for Dahen and his mother, that they can enjoy their time here with us here in our fledgling Jerusalem community as much as possible.
This morning, two years old Dahen and his mother arrived at the airport. I took them by train to Jerusalem. At around 8:30 we arrived at our guest house where they were welcomed by the rest of our community and the two families we have staying there with us. While Dahen’s mother needed some time to settle, Dahen directly went to bed and fell asleep. It must have been a really tiring night for him. Sadly, Dahen and his mother can’t stay with the their friends from Kurdistan in Ashdod who came already earlier this year. Dahen’s mother was a little discouraged because of this and she asked multiple times if it’s not possible for her to go to Ashdod.
But even more than this were her worries for her son. A doctor in Kurdistan told her that Dahen should have had his surgery already one year ago. Because of this, his mother wants to go to the hospital eagerly, so that he can be treated and get his surgery. She even started to cry multiple times today. Maybe she was also a bit tired and overwhelmed by the whole new situation. Let’s pray for her and Dahen, that he can have his treatment started soon and that his mother can relax a bit more. Dahen has not only a hole between his lower chambers, but also both of his main arteries are connected to the right ventricle. Instead, his aorta should be connected to the left ventricle. Because of these two defects, the oxygen-rich blood mixes with the oxygen-less blood. Hopefully he will have his first appointment soon and can start his treatment. In the meantime, please pray for them, that their waiting time won’t be too long.
Little Dahen is now living with us in our Jerusalem community home for almost exactly one month and every day with him is filled with pure joy. Even if he is crying, it is easy to cheer him up with tickling or just hugging him. He loves to play with us, to watch his mother working in the kitchen and to just spend time outside in the sun. He is a child that doesn’t need much to be happy and we are so thankful for him and his lovely mother to be part of our community. They are lighting up every single day of ours.
Next week is Dahen’s long-awaited Echo appointment at Hadassah Hospital. God willing the doctor will discharge him and his mother back home to Kurdistan. She can’t wait to get home, as she also has another son who is having his tonsillectomy. The past few days she was very sad about not being able to be with him. But we are trying our best to he there for her.
