Little Mam looks very happy these days. Since his discharge from Hadassah Hospital last week to Ashdod, he has been recovering well. However, a transition was made today to bring Mam and his mother to our community home in Jerusalem in order to meet Mam’s scheduled appointments coming up at Hadassah.
Next Sunday, June 04, Mam will have Stoma closure surgery. The nurse saw Mam’s file and confirmed the date. He will also have an echo on June 05 at Hadassah so things are moving forward for this little one. We’re so thankful for his recovery and improvement. Your continued prayers for Mam are greatly appreciated.
At Hadassah Hospital this morning, it was decided that Mam could be discharged. I helped with the discharge process and collected the necessary information regarding pharmacy items we will need for Mam for his medical care outside the hospital. The hospital provided enough medicine to be given over the next few days, but another medicine that requires three days to prepare will have to be procured in Ashdod along with other items Mam will be needing.
Ashdod coworkers Joanne and Faye came to Hadassah to collect Mam and his mother and they brought them back to their community home in Ashdod where some of the other moms and children are staying and were glad to see them.
On June 4, Mam and his mother must return to Hadassah for a check-up regarding the stoma, and whether or not it can be removed. Then on June 5, they would like to do a heart echo on Mam. By that time Mam and his mother will have transitioned back to our Jerusalem community home which is closer to Hadassah, in order to make these appointments more easily.
It is hoped that Mam will have a colon repair before returning to Kurdistan. Please pray for this to happen and that Mam’s health will be in a ready state for this.
Doctors at Hadassah Hospital’s Surgical Ward were daily weaning Mam from the sedative medication he was continuing to receive after his emergency abdominal surgery. He wasn’t completely weaned until today. Provided all goes well tomorrow and goes according to plan, little mam will be discharged to our community house in Jerusalem. He smiled when he heard it.
Mam’s mother has been well trained as to how to keep her baby’s abdomen clean and to change out the disposal bags. After about two weeks, she and Mam will need to return to the hospital for a check-up and for the next steps in his treatment before returning to Kurdistan.
Thank you for your prayers for this family, so far from their home and not yet finished with the healing process.
Baby Mam is good, and he looks more and more healthy every time I see him. His mother told me they did a blood test on him today at Hadassah Hospital, but we don’t know the results yet.
Mam’s mother’s face shines just as bright as his, like the sun, and it makes me so happy to see her in that state. Her joy is my joy, and to God be the glory! Please continue to lift up Mam in your prayers, and thank Him for all the wonderful things He is doing in this precious little boy’s life
Baby Mam is now in the Surgical Ward of Hadassah Hospital. He is recovering very well. He is no longer on any oxygen support and is being fed orally. We brought him a gift from the knitting circle of women who make lovely toys and send them to us here in Israel. Mam loved his little knit octopus:
Thank you for your prayers for this baby. They have been working!
To my great joy I found that our sweet little baby Mam had been moved from the ICU to the Surgical department of Hadassah Hospital today. When entering his new room I met his mothers smiling face, holding her phone pointing it towards me. She was typing the good news to me, and suddenly to her surprise I appeared. This precious little son of hers looks like a baby again, peacefully sleeping unaware of how close to death he has been. He has survived not only one, but two big surgeries in a short period of time, and God in His mercy has kept him safe through it all. His mother nodded when I said, “I’m so grateful to God, Mam could have been dead by now. He is truly a miracle.”
The nurses are teaching Mam’s mother to change the enterostomy bag, and I admire the peace and strength I see in her. She has gone through a very hard time, and there is still a long way to go. Please keep little Mam, his mother and the wonderful hospital crew lifted up before God.
I went to check up on little Mam in Hadassah Hospital’s ICU. He is doing much better and will not likely remain in this wing of the hospital much longer.
Mam is gaining weight and is a lovely pink color. His abdominal recovery is ongoing and tests still need to be done to make sure all is well there and corrective surgery will likely be done before Mam returns to Kurdistan.
For now though, like a healthy baby, little Mam does not want to remain in this PICU bed, but strongly wants to be on his mom’s arms!! Look at their lovely eye contact.
At Hadassah Hospital, Mam has been weaned from O2 support, breathing by himself and his high AST (liver functional enzyme score) is getting normalized. He needs to sleep to recover fully and he is now, thank God.
We continue to pray for this little guy. Thankful for his progress so far.
Today Mam’s condition was improving much. His urine output was only 25 a few days ago, but yesterday it was over 400. He is overcoming a septic condition after laparotomy and resection of necrotic bowel.
Mam’s mom was quite happy to see he is getting better day by day. We hope his bowel would be reconnected as soon as possible. Please pray for his quick recovery !
Mam had a difficult and unstable night following his emergency surgery, and worried doctors had to put him on the highest possible level of breathing support. This morning though they were able to start lowering the support levels, and by later in the day he had begun to produce small amounts of urine (a critical sign that his organs are working). We continue in prayer; our Father in heaven reigns over the life of Mam!
Last night Mam’s mother noticed his abdomen was tight and swelling, and this morning his doctors called to say they would have to perform an emergency surgery in his ICU room to remove a life-threatening necrotic section of his colon.
By the time our team reached the hospital, doctors were explaining to his weeping mother that this was a high-risk procedure but they had no other option, and they needed her consent. “God sometimes reminds me that I’m not God,” the worried surgeon told her.
Our team waited outside praying, and Michiel felt at a certain point that “The Lord said he was taking over…and then, a short while later, I heard relaxed laughter from the improvised ‘operation room.'”
The surgeon eventually emerged to share with a smile that upon opening the abdomen he found the situation better than expected, and he had to only remove a small portion of the colon. Doctors are hopeful for Mam’s recovery, and that they’ll be able to reconnect his colon after 6-12 weeks of healing.
Coworker Berith and I went to Hadassah Hospital today and stopped in the ICU to see how little Mam is coming along. He is extubated and receiving high-flow oxygen-support. He is stable and quite calm and breathing easy. So from a post-surgery perspective, things looked good.
His little toe was glowing with a monitor light behind it…otherwise, he is doing well. His mom seemed a bit apprehensive however, so we pray for her peace and patience as she waits for her little baby’s health and well-being to be restored.
Our little baby boy Mam is prepared and waiting to go downstairs for his big surgery. I have never before met such a peaceful and gentle mother as his, but when I put my hand on her back, her eyes got filled with tears. Please pray for the surgeons that they don’t miss anything, and that the mother will receive good news about her beloved son.
Written by Elise:
Today was the day of Mams surgery at Hadassah Hospital. We left our community house early in the morning and checked him into the pre-surgery ward of the hospital. After some waiting our little boy got a way too big pajama, which looked really cute, and then we were on our way to the surgery room.
His mother was allowed to stay with him until the anesthesia started. She came back to us in tears and coworker Berith and I could only try to comfort her. And then the long waiting time began.
We got some coffee and food and after a few hours we were told that the surgery was over. We could finally meet Mam in the ICU. There we met one of the surgeons. He let us know they were able to fix the huge VSD (hole in the wall between the two ventricles) that comes with the heart defect DORV. By that they could already place the Aorta right, so they didn’t have to switch the great arteries actively. They also placed a PA-band to control the blood flow to the lungs, which was way too strong due to the heart condition before the surgery. By this, the heart can get used to the right blood pressure, the band will be removed in a future intervention.
All in all, the whole surgery went really good and even better than planned. Praise God.
For now our little boy is asleep and still intubated, his mother is getting used to this new situation. Please pray for both, that the Lord will keep them safe and that they can grow stronger through those new circumstances.
Today our sweet Mam got prepared at Hadassah Hospital for his big surgery on Sunday! The hospital needed some samples for analysis and checked his vitals. Our big boy underwent all of that while kind of restless, but really brave. The only time he cried was while they took a blood sample!
When that was done, Mam’s mother and I were waiting for the surgeon to explain the surgery to us. In the waiting time, Mam was hanging out in his mother’s lap and took a long nap. After a while the surgeon explained things to us and his words were translated to Mam’s mother who speaks a dialect of Kurdish.
In the upcoming surgery, the doctors will fix Mam’s Double Outlet Right Ventricle (DORV) and Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA). This is a really big surgery which will put a heavy strain on his heart. Please pray for Mam, who will collect some more strength in our house this weekend prior to his surgery, and for his mother, who is already pretty nervous and collecting mental strength. May the Lord be with them and keep them safe!
Today I went together with Mam and his mother to his first echo at Hadassah Hospital. We had to wait quite a while but then we got finally called for his echo. They checked his weight and height, and his oxygen in addition to the echo. Mam was first looking around interested but at some point he lost his patience, became hungry and just started crying.
As soon as the echo was over and he was again in the arms of his mother he forgot it all though. His doctor saw that Mam’s heart is more complicated than they thought and his surgery will be very big and complicated. They will discuss his case and plan to do his surgery already next week.
Please pray for wisdom for his doctors and strength for his mother!
Two days ago, little Mam went together with his mother on a long journey to come here to us. First they flew from Kurdistan to Jordan where they were collected by Shevet Achim coworkers, including Tatiana, and were welcomed as their guests for two nights. We received pictures and videos from them and saw that they had a great time there together.
This morning they then started their second part of their journey and went through the border from Jordan to Israel where coworker Michiel and I collected them and brought them to our community house in Jerusalem. Here they are starting to feel at home now and we are excited to get to know them better. Mam is only two months and five days old and has a heart defects called TGA. It means that his two big arteries are switched and he will need a surgery as soon as possible to fix this problem. Mam’s mother is a very sweet and patient woman and I’m sure she will be a big blessing to our community!
Please pray for Mam and his mother as they are settling in here and especially for the big surgery that lays ahead for Mam!
Little Mam looks very happy these days. Since his discharge from Hadassah Hospital last week to Ashdod, he has been recovering well. However, a transition was made today to bring Mam and his mother to our community home in Jerusalem in order to meet Mam’s scheduled appointments coming up at Hadassah.
Next Sunday, June 04, Mam will have Stoma closure surgery. The nurse saw Mam’s file and confirmed the date. He will also have an echo on June 05 at Hadassah so things are moving forward for this little one. We’re so thankful for his recovery and improvement. Your continued prayers for Mam are greatly appreciated.
