Today I had the pleasure of meeting five-year-old Bara from Ramallah, who came to Sheba Hospital toay for a follow-up appointment for his pacemaker.
Jonathan and I greeted him when he came out of his appointment, and oh my! A bundle of energy and joy erupted into the room. This kid has so much personality. He was climbing all over the train in the echo clinic, and I could already tell this kid is probably up to all kinds of things when nobody is looking!
I introduced him to the bubbles we carry around, and watching him have an absolute blast with them was so much fun. He couldn’t get enough.
He even made a friend in the echo clinic, and I was impressed to see a five-year-old so willingly share.
His mother and father generously gifted us Palestinian treats to share with the community, as well as some for me to bring home to America for my fiancé and me. I had just met them that day, and once again, I was so touched by the kindness and generosity of the Arab people. What a gift from God their culture is.
Just as abruptly and energetically as Bara came into the room, he left it. We said our goodbyes, and I hope that someday I’ll have the opportunity to meet Bara and his kind parents again.
The doctor explained that Bara’s condition is very good, and he will have another follow-up appointment in February of next year. We thank the Lord for the healing He has done in Bara’s life!
Please pray that his spunk and personality will continue to be radiant, and that he remains healthy until he returns for his next appointment.
It was great to see Bara of Ramallah and his mother and father today. I hadn’t seen them for six months and they arrived for his follow up appointment. Bara is a happy little boy and he was excited to get on the toy train in the lobby of Sheba children’s heart hospital. It was also nice to talk with his father who shared pictures with me of his lively little son, you can see that he loves him very much. Bara had an echocardiogram and EKG today. Pray that Bara continues to grow strong and healthy and remains the happy little guy that he is.
Bara, an active little boy from Ramallah, was really taking full advantage of all the fun things at Sheba Hospital today.
Early this morning, as he waited for his echocardiogram, he enjoyed a bag of Cheetos…
and began painting at an activity table.
In addition to an echo, doctors also helped Bara with his pacemaker. Bara was in need of a special card to show that he is exempt from entering security metal detectors. His father walked across the campus with me to pick up the card, so it was nice that Bara was busy having fun painting and with other activities.
Please pray for Bara to stay healthy and active, and for wisdom for the doctors on the best course of action for little Bara.
Today Bara and his family came into Sheba Medical Center for a routine checkup. He was in a very very good mood today and playful. Whether running around like crazy, or pretending to be Superman, Spider-Man, or some other superhero. He is a very sweet child and seems to love all of us, especially Max. Very often he would come up to me and ask where Max was before he had been able to get up to the cardiac floor. He is probably one of the sweetest children.
Bara also had a run in with a clown who tried to call him on a hotdog sandwich and then blew bubbles with Bara. It was very cute and funny.
Bara is doing very good! There is nothing to note so Bara will be back in three months for a pacemaker and echo checkup!
Please pray that he will continue in health till that time!
Bara gets to go home! Finally! After a very long hospital stay (of 47 days to be exact), Bara and his parents get to go home – and just in time to spend Eid Al-Fitr, a festival of breaking the Ramadan fast, with their family.
Bara has improved so much since his surgery. I still remember visiting him after it and noticing how blue he looked. He’s much more peppy, walks about, and today his mother said he’s even ran! Praise God! What a blessing.
I’m happy for them but will miss the visits I was able to spend with them during their long wait. Both parents know a little English, so hanging-out with them was refreshing, and a relationship was beginning. (Plus, they’re good Arabic teachers – more than willing to answer questions or correct pronunciations)
Bara will return to Sheba Hospital to follow-up with cardiology in the near future.
As some of you may remember Spider-Man visited our very own Sheba Hospital about two weeks ago, well in recent days the (for this instance) Marvel character, known as the Hulk, has firmly taken place in our little Bara’s heart. Now the question is, will Spider-Man be able to win it back?
Today I walked into Bara’s room and found him sitting in his bed with a Hulk stuffed toy which was staring at him from the foot of Bara’s bed. As I walked in and got comfortable seated, Bara’s dad started asking where my coworker Max (aka Spider-Man) was, and for the first time in a very long couple of weeks, I saw Bara smile! Bara definitely loves Max and loves playing with him! (Maybe there is hope for Spider-Man yet). But I was also able to get Bara’s attention long enough to have him smile even if it was because he was shooting at me with his plastic gun. It was very beautiful to finally see these smiles!
We talked to the doctors who said Bara has a couple more hiccups in his recovery, but we are all praying that he will be able to go home this week and enjoy the last events of Ramadan from the comfort of his home rather than from a hospital room, his parents I’m sure would agree!
Bara is finally starting to seem more lively and active as he was before his first surgery, recovery quickly, playing and interacting with staff, being unafraid to speak on the account of pain, and it has been a great blessing.
As far as friends go, Bara and I are the best of friends, you would be hard pressed to find any better! So after a week of my absence, I was excited to see the little guy, and the feeling was mutual!
He excitedly started talking to me about all manner of things playing (he found it funny to “make” me jump) and showing me the new hulk toy he has, which he named after one of his nurses. He also started rattling off each of the (many) medications he was on, which amounted to him saying more than everything he said to me following his first surgery.
Now we are just waiting, Bara is recovering quickly, and we are optimistic that we will see him discharged back home very soon.
Today Bara had his surgery to remove blood clotting around the lungs. The surgery was deemed necessary due to Bara’s consistent fevers and failure to thrive in the last days. This was a smaller surgery and less invasive than his prior one, and it only took about two hours from beginning to end. We sat with his parents, speaking and praying with them as the time passed by.
Praise God, the surgery went well. All the blood clots were successfully removed, and Bara was brought to his hospital room safe and sound. He was intubated after the surgery in order to keep him stabilized; but we trust and pray that, despite visual steps back, that this will have brought Bara farther along on the path to healing.
When we arrived at Sheba Hospital today, a nurse was in Bara’s room attempting to draw blood for some tests. At first she had a difficult time, but later another nurse came and had a more successful attempt. This blood drawing left Bara a little sulky- as most of the children hospitalized for a long period tend to be. His didn’t want to be social but eventually gave high fives as they were asked for.
Coworker Anna got him to smile, however, playing superhero. He LOVES superheroes.
We had such a delightful time visiting with his parents, and learned that today was his mother’s birthday! We sang “Happy Birthday” in Arabic and got her some chocolates to enjoy after the daily Ramadan fast, of course.
When we went back to Bara’s room to deliver the chocolates, however, we learned that he is scheduled to go in for a small surgery tomorrow to remove some clots in his lungs.
Please pray that this surgery goes well and will fix what it needs to.
Today, coworker Zechariah and I went to Sheba Medical Center to visit Bara. I was excited because, just like you, I had received the good news that Bara’s recovery had reached the point where he was able to walk a short distance on his own. And there he was. Even before Zechariah and I could visit his room, he walked up to us. What a blessing after such a challenging surgery. With a fist bump and a smile, Bara then returned to his room.
A little later, while we were waiting for Mustafa (one of our older boys from the West Bank) to return from his catherisation, we saw Bara passing by, lying on his hospital bed. He had developed a fever, and the doctors wanted to check his lungs to see if and how the fever was affecting his body.
I went along with his parents in the hospital transport that took Bara to the other side of the hospital where the CT-scan was made. Although it wasn’t the most enjoyable outing, the mini road trip seemed to be a nice change of scenery for Bara. From my perspective, I was happy for him that he could feel the sunlight on his skin, breathe in the fresh air outside, and go for a little ride. But my prayer is that he will soon experience this again in full health, so he will be able to really enjoy it at home with his siblings. We pray that his fever will subside quickly and that we will receive good results from the scan.
For now, we wait to see what the results of the scan will be.
Bara has had a tough recovery, barely beginning to smile on Friday (the first time he had since his surgery was when I walked into the room for a visit) and being physically weak with seemingly no change. So imagine my surprise to see Bara walking out of the ICU, parents holding his arms to give him balance, and the little boy in the middle walking to greet me with a smile!
His family spent much of the day anywhere but the hospital bed they had been cooped up in for so long, exploring, going outside, and letting Bara get some excersize and a change of the rather boring ICU scenery.
He tired easily of course, and at the end we played back in his room, he enjoys playing superheroes, throwing me around and bringing me to him, but what he enjoyed most was when I started playing my harmonica for him. It was the classic, “You are my Sunshine” but the unsung lyrics were true and fresh in my mind, going without seeing him smile, without seeing him have joy in the life he has, it was heartbreaking. But seeing him freed from the shackles which come with medical healing gave me joy. As I told his parents,
… to see Bara’s smile and his joy is like seeing sunshine after a storm.
Today I reached Sheba Hospital hoping to find out when Bara would have his pacemaker surgery. I was very surprised, therefore, to learn that he had it that very morning in just three hours, before I had even arrived; in the same procedure he had several blood clots around the heart removed.
Bara rested peacefully under the influence of his medicine while I talked with his parents. They’ve begun the Ramadan fast and were both already tired, though very hospitable. Bara’s father reminded me again that all our days are written, and that nothing has happened to Bara that has not been permitted by the will of God. Our Muslim friends, in their effort at absolute submission, understand this very well.
That said, we also believe in a God who receives the prayers of his faithful and who listens to those he loves. So we continue to pray for Bara and ask for his healing. We pray that this pacemaker will serve him well and that he’ll quickly be restored to full life.
When coworker Anna and I reached Sheba Hospital, we found Bara sitting up more in bed and looking more alert in the last time we’d seen him. Bara is still clearly in pain and unhappy, but his eyes are brighter and he spoke more.
Bara is not out of the woods yet. When there his parents told me that their electrophysiologist thinks Bara is going to need a pacemaker implant. We haven’t yet heard the details of this procedure, or an explanation as to its necessity, but it seems like a result of Bara’s thus far failure to thrive; although he looks better following his surgery in some ways, his oxygen is not greatly improved.
We continue to pray everyday for the healing of this sweet little boy; we also pray that if this pacemaker implant comes to pass, that it will be to his good and that it will refresh and rejuvenate his life.
Today coworker Bethany and I went to Sheba Hospital where we were able to visit Bara who is from Ramallah in the West Bank. Bara had a massive surgery about five days ago, and today his is self-extubated (His mom said that at some point last night he pulled out his tube, so they have him on a nasal cannula instead.), drinking water, and somewhat but not really awake.
To me this seems to be a major improvement from when I last saw him from the outside his room shortly after his surgery. He had had an emergency surgery to stop extra bleeding after an already arduous eight hours. It always amazes me how much God has made our bodies to withstand. Stuff that seems like it should kill us, Jesus turns to his glory.
I was able to talk and joke a little but with his mom, and during this time she told us the the doctors had taken out one of his chest tubes, but sadly he still has on in his side, and that Bara has been restless during the nights and therefore she isn’t able to get much sleep as she is constantly worried he’s going to full out some other tube that is helping to keep him stable.
I would like to pray for his continued healing, and that his parents can get a good nights sleep!
I was thankful to get to meet both of Bara’s parents today when I went with coworker Anna to Sheba Hospital to visit our families that are there.
When we first arrived, we found his parents both deeply focused in prayer. I am always struck by the persistent prayer life of our Muslim neighbors. No matter where they are, most of them find a place in which to pray. May we all be that way and seek always to find a spot to hide away and seek our Father’s face.
After awhile we were able to visit with them both. They speak excellent English and I was grateful for our easy ability to communicate. Bara’s father flipped thru various pictures of Bara on his phone, boasting as father’s do about how handsome and smart Bara is.
We brought them some pastries, and found that both mother and father were fasting on behalf of their son. Again I was struck by this and wondered how many of us would do the same if in their situation. Very moving!
Bara’s doctor said that, though the bleeding that took him back to the OR yesterday evening has stabilized, they still would not describe him as being stable overall. His hemoglobin had dropped enough that his team was giving him a blood transfusion while we were there, and they were working to stabilize various other blood levels, like his calcium, as well.
Anna and I were able to pray over Bara and we plead the blood of Jesus over his life. Please pray with us for him! Pray that the Lord would cause his body to recover well and that he would stabilize fully. We are so thankful for his medical team and for the tremendous care that they are giving to this handsome young man.
Bara’s surgery started at 8 AM today at Sheba Hospital. It was a very large surgery. His surgeon aimed to replace a disintegrating valve, open his ASD, and progress his Fontan; three surgeries in one, essentially!
His surgery took over nine hours to complete. It was a long and difficult time for his parents, who were stressed and quiet for most of the time. But eventually his surgeon emerged and told us that all three procedures had been successfully completed; however, he was still experiencing some bleeding.
Bara was eventually wheeled into his room, much to the relief of his parents–but their relief turned to stress again as his bleeding worsened on his bed. He had to go back into an emergency chest-opening there in his hospital room as the doctors sought to discern the source of the bleeding.
After an hour of prayer and waiting, by God’s grace, Bara’s surgeon had success and found bleeding vessels around the heart. They were patched up and Bara was stabilized. He’s now resting in his room.
We pray for his healing in these next days as his body seeks to adjust to this new state of life.
Bara approached Sheba Medical Center timidly, but throughout the day warmed up to each task that was awaiting him. First, maybe the most common task of the day, was waiting. After a rather long wait we were able to get Bara checked-in and begin the process of preparing him for surgery tomorrow.
Then, I was pleased to see that a room had been prepared for Bara and he could get settled in. Bara’s parents answered many questions and Bara patiently played on the bed.
Then was worst task of the day, having the IV placed. Bara tried to face this task bravely, but he remembered all too well the pain of blood tests, and his fear led to some distress. Unfortunately, the IV was unsuccessful for two tries, and they would have to try again later.
We then went to do the chest xray, which was not pleasant for Bara, but he did very well. Then it was back up to the room and Bara quickly jumped onto the bed and laid down, tired from his day of tests and waiting.
Bara still had the dreaded IV that needed to be placed, but that was a problem for another time, for now all he needed was sleep.
Tomorrow Bara will have a big surgery where the doctors will work to resolve a problem with his previous Fontan surgery, and the doctor said it will take many hours.
We lift up Bara in prayer and petition that the Lord would protect him and keep him throughout the procedure and bring him safely through. For now, Bara will rest and wait for his big day tomorrow.
Today I got to hang out with Bara and his parents during the moments leading up to his catheterization at Sheba Medical Center. It was my first time meeting them.
His parents are sweet, but Bara was shy and uninterested in talking to me.
I got to be there as the doctor put Bara to sleep for the procedure, and then his cath began.
I continued to sit with his parents. They were restless, but the cath went well and quick, being only an hour and forty-five minutes.
According to doctors, Bara does need a surgery, which, God willing, will be next week. This news seemed to distress his parents. Please keep them in your prayers, as well as little Bara as the big day approaches.
Bara’s last catheterization at Sheba Hospital ended prematurely, cancelled because of sickness.
But today he returned, ready for another go at it. Bara was in better spirits today than last time, maybe because he’s not sick. He told me a little about his favorite superhero, Spider-Man, and showed me a cartoon on his tablet. His parents also were kind and gracious — I was surprised to learn his mother speaks English well.
Bara’s procedure tomorrow will, God willing, pave the way for future surgery. We pray that he will be kept safe and brought full healing.
Today when I reached Sheba Hospital there was disappointing news: Bara’s cath had been cancelled due to sickness. When I had seen him yesterday, I thought his discoloration was simply due to his heart condition–but it turns out he and his parents had actually been sick for the last several days, and so to avoid unnecessary danger, the catheterization did not move forward.
His family returned home discouraged. However, their doctor assured them the wait for a new catheterization date would not be long.
We pray that Bara will remain in good condition until then, and that his catheterization will be both efficacious and undelayed.
Today I met little Bara for the first time as he came to Sheba Hospital in preparation for both a CT scan and his catheterization.
Bara was very shy, as are most of the children who return to the big hospital; but he nevertheless shook my hand and whispered “alhamdulillah” when I asked how he was doing. He had a cardiac CT scan that went off without a hitch, and then I took him and his parents to check in for their catheterization.
Although it was a very long wait, they eventually were settled into their hospital room for the evening, where they await their catheterization procedure.
Bara came to Sheba hospital today accompanied by his parents and an Israeli friend of their’s; truly an entourage! He came excited, happy to see me, happy to play, happy to be on a new adventure. After seeing a child crying in the waiting room, he promised me he would not cry like that when it was his turn; I offered him an ice cream if he could manage it, but he refused saying he doesn’t eat ice cream in winter, so we settled on chips.
When it was his turn, his dentist was so good at her job, Bara thought they were playing a fun counting game all the while she was examining his mouth and scraping plaque. Eventually though, as the examination progressed, he enjoyed it less but nonetheless got through it.
Doctors said he would need two dental surgeries before he could receive his catheterization, and while usually this could mean months of waiting, the doctors had two appointments next week! Bara has a lot of work to be done, so it seems the dentists are eager to start.
Bara ended the day on a good note, munching on his chips, and enthusiastically waving me goodbye as he drove off with his family.
Today I had the pleasure of meeting Bara today, a three year old boy from Ramallah in the West Bank! He was quiet and shy for a moment when we first arrived, but that soon dissipated once he realized we were going to be his new friends.
He loves superheroes and made that very clear from the start – he would make noises of Spiderman shooting his webs, or Iron Man using his lasers, and Hulk smashing the ground, and I would react in wild ways, throwing myself around. He gave me quite the beating without even touching me, but he enjoyed it a lot.
He was also very brave for his echo, only showing a sign of anger towards the very end when a doctor prodded him in an area which caused some pain. Besides that he was patient and kind.
Bara’s condition has multiple concerns, at least one of which will require a surgery. He has a long surgical history in the West Bank, but Israel will need to work on some procedures which did not work, such as repairing his tricuspid valve, and providing treatment not readily available in his home, such as dilating his fenstration.
We will see him again soon once doctors meet to decide on his condition, but today he went home happy and his parents hopeful for the future, and we know that hope is not unfounded when Bara has a loving God watching over him.
Today I had the pleasure of meeting five-year-old Bara from Ramallah, who came to Sheba Hospital toay for a follow-up appointment for his pacemaker.
Jonathan and I greeted him when he came out of his appointment, and oh my! A bundle of energy and joy erupted into the room. This kid has so much personality. He was climbing all over the train in the echo clinic, and I could already tell this kid is probably up to all kinds of things when nobody is looking!
I introduced him to the bubbles we carry around, and watching him have an absolute blast with them was so much fun. He couldn’t get enough.
He even made a friend in the echo clinic, and I was impressed to see a five-year-old so willingly share.
Just as abruptly and energetically as Bara came into the room, he left it. We said our goodbyes, and I hope that someday I’ll have the opportunity to meet Bara and his kind parents again.
The doctor explained that Bara’s condition is very good, and he will have another follow-up appointment in February of next year. We thank the Lord for the healing He has done in Bara’s life!
Please pray that his spunk and personality will continue to be radiant, and that he remains healthy until he returns for his next appointment.
