Personal Stories

The Chain of Hope has been working in The Gambia since 2007, providing cardiac surgery and other support for Gambian children and their families, and also helping with capacity development through training selected individuals. Here are some recent examples.

Fatoumata with her Father after her London operation.

Fatoumata presented to the MRC Clinic in 2011 at the age of 8 with a very swollen, painful belly and shortness of breath. A scan in Dakar showed that she had been born with a narrowing of the valve that enables blood to circulate through the lungs for oxygenation. She was literally being starved of oxygen and always looked so sad and miserable when visiting the Clinic. In 2013, Fatoumata was sponsored to travel to London for surgery where she stayed for a month. She came back to the Clinic in November 2013 completely transformed, happy and smiling for the first time ever. When asking Fatoumata’s father what difference the surgery has made to her life, he said: ‘It’s like night and day! Before she could not play or go to school, now she can do both. We are so grateful.’

Modou Lamin — ‘Modo’ — suffers from rheumatic heart disease, and was followed up at the MRC clinic since 2008. His big ambition is to be a pilot.
Helped by Phil and Joan Feller, who have known Modo and his family for many years through their work with the charity Friends of Visually Impaired Gambia, funds were raised to help the Chain of Hope send Modo to Aswan for surgery. He is now back at school, acing all his exams and riding a bicycle for the first time in years. Modo will have to stay on antibiotic prophylaxis for the rest of his life to prevent further damage to his heart.

Modo now, with Dad, Phil and Joan.

Amie is our miracle child!  She was born with Tetralogy of Fallot, a rare, complex heart condition that resulted in her being 'blue' much of the time, very short of breath and unable to run or play. By the time she became known to medical services the consequences of her disease were very severe.
In March of this year she developed acute glomerular nephritis, a kidney disease that also results from infection with the streptococcus bacterium, developed high blood pressure and had a stroke which left her paralysed on the left side. Fortunately she made a good recovery from the stroke and her kidney disease and her consequent high blood pressure slowly resolved.
We thought that she was too sick for cardiac surgery, but in September of this year the Chain of Hope flew her to London for corrective surgery. Unfortunately things did not go smoothly and her already very damaged heart did not cope well. She developed kidney failure, needed dialysis, and the surgeons feared that she would not survive. We called in her father, who had stayed in The Gambia, to warn him of her poor prognosis. But against all the odds she pulled through. And here she is looking so well after surgery, together with her delighted (and relieved) parents.

Amie with her parents.

Sadly not all of our stories are so successful, and The Gambia needs cardiology specialists to help diagnose and manage children with heart disease and, importantly, review and assess the success and response to cardiac surgery.

CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT

The Chain of Hope is helping The Gambia in cardiology capacity development.

Rahmatulai Maane at work at MRC, Fajara.

Rahmatulai Maane is a radiographer who has always had an interest in ultrasound. She says:
'Since graduating in 2011, I have had the chance to spend a considerable amount of time working in the ultrasound room at the MRC unit The Gambia. However, I have now developed a huge interest in echocardiography in particular. I chose this area of specialisation because of The Gambia’s complete lack of professionals skilled in echocardiography, which means that patients must travel out of the country for the service.
I was unable to undertake an echocardiography training programme because of the lack of funds, but Chain of Hope has now given me the much-needed opportunity to get trained in echocardiography. This will contribute immensely to my career progression. In addition to being able to perform radiography and basic ultrasound examinations, I will now possess the skills and expertise necessary to practise echocardiography unsupervised. This training will be beneficial to the entire Gambian population as it will remove the need for Gambians to travel abroad for accurate diagnosis of congenital or acquired heart conditions, or for the ongoing medical management of patients and the post-op evaluation of those that access cardiac surgery.'

On 1 June 2013, Dr Lamin Jaiteh, a clinician from the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital, Banjul, The Gambia, travelled to the Aswan Heart Centre, Egypt, for six months of cardiology training. The Chain of Hope funded him. Here’s what he has to say about cardiology in the Gambia.
‘At present I can say that the practice of cardiology as a clinical sub-speciality does not exist in the Gambia. To begin with, we do not have a single Gambian cardiologist in the country, and we do not even have one of the most basic investigative tools in modern-day cardiology practice – an echocardiogram machine. In fact, some people now say that ECHO is the equivalent of a stethoscope for the cardiologist, it is so vital and basic.
So I would say that the first step should be for The Gambia to get a very good ECHO machine in the country*. I believe this will go a long way to reducing both the cost and physical stress endured by patients who have to travel to Dakar for this investigation.
I believe with time and by training, including specialisation of the crop of young doctors we have in the Gambia, the future is bright. Myy ambition is to become a cardiologist and I am sure there are others with the same ambition too.’

In addition, a Gambian radiographer will be travelling to Aswan in January 2014 to begin training in ECHO cardiography. This is a wonderful opportunity to develop her skills further to help young Gambians with heart disease.
Moreover, in 2014, two young cardiologists from the UK, are planning on coming to The Gambia together with a sonography technician to complete some on-site training and review patients. Their trip will be funded by The Chain of Hope.

* Note, while the need for an ECHO machine in the public health service is undoubtedly high, without appropriately trained staff to use the machine and interpret its findings, this would rapidly become a white elephant.