13 Mar Hospital de Clinicas
DormÃa y soñé que la vida era bella; desperté y advertà entonces que ella es deber.* – Immanuel Kant
I slept and dreamed that life was beautiful; I awoke and found that it should be.
( *As presented by Dr. René de Szwako, at the ceremony marking Hospital de Clinicas’ inauguration of the new room at Centro Materno Infantil )
Life should be beautiful. Life should be full of promise, and hearts full of laughter. Yet prior to the opening of the Centro Materno Infantil room at Hospital de Clinicas, the doctors there could do nothing to fix the tiny hearts of their youngest patients because, while able to operate, they lacked the mechanisms through which to monitor children post-operatively. No monitors, no pulse oximeters, no cuffs, no pumps, no resuscitators, no beds. Now that’s changed.
Newborn babies to children up to eighteen years of age needing cardiac surgery now have a safe place to recover. On Wednesday, May 17, 2006, the Foundation attended the inauguration of CMI in Asuncion, Paraguay, and witnessed firsthand our collaboration with MD International and Menrath Medical. This is a hospital that has taken every opportunity to create an encouraging environment for patients and their families ~ brightly colored murals grace the walls, natural light is used where appropriate to bring sunshine to recovery, families crochet baby hats and blankets for each other, and the doctors, nurses, medical faculty, professors and residents are unrelenting in their dedication to ameliorating conditions for their young charges. They support hope everyday, and, working together, they now have more to go on.
The Foundation is continuing to work with Hospital de Clinicas, and will begin our latest installment there in Spring 2009.
