About UNC Project-Uganda

In 2004, a group of UNC physicians established the Amal Murarka International Pediatric Health Foundation in memory of their colleague, Dr. Amal Murarka, who died unexpectedly in 2003. The foundation sent a medical team to Kampala to establish the country's first pediatric intensive care unit at Mulago Hospital, Makerere University, where Dr. Murarka had previously conducted research. Subsequent work in 2007 and 2008 focused on pediatric cardiac surgery. The foundation not only built a cardiac ICU, but also performed a total of 21 life-saving pediatric cardiac surgeries.

In 2008 the foundation partnered with the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases to establish UNC Project-Uganda.

Mission

The UNC Project-Uganda was established to support sustainable delivery of compassionate and competent health care to infants, children, and adolescents in Uganda; to improve the medical knowledge of the Ugandan health care workforce through in-country training and a physician exchange program; and to provide advanced medical equipment, medications, and services necessary for the delivery of compassionate and competent pediatric care in Uganda.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

UNC Project Uganda Sept. 2009 mission

16 members from UNC will travel on Sept 26, 2009 to Kampala Uganda for the next Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Mission. We will continue our ongoing efforts to train Ugandan Health Care Providers (MD, RN, RT, perfusion, biomedical engineering) in treating children with complex congenital heart defects. Since our last mission in Oct 2008, our partners from Children's National Medical Center have returned in April 2009 and operated on an additional 10 children while advancing the Uganda Heart Program. The Ugandan team in-country has successfully repaired 3 additional children. We plan to operate on 10 children with increasingly complex heart disease while preparing the Ugandan Team to continue this work after our departure. We are again blessed by the generous support of Samaritan's Purse and UNC Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases.

Team Leader: Keith Kocis, MD
Pediatric Cardiac Surgeon: Michael Mill, MD
Pediatric Cardiac Anesthesiology: Gene Freid, MD
Pediatric Intensivists: Stacey Peterson Carmichael, MD, Parvin Dorostkar, MD
OR Nurse: Jenn Ditto, RN, PNP
Physician's Assist: Ruben Bocanegra, PA
Perfusionist: Greg Griffin
Cardiac ICU Nurses: Karla Brown, RN, PNP; Katherine Desrocher, RN; Diane Yorke, RN, PhD; Susan VanFleet, RN; John Bryson, RN; Julie Fields, RN; Jeannie Koo, RN, PNP.
Respiratory Therapists: Lupe Haynes, RRT; Sheila White, RRT.
Biomedical Engineering: Elizabeth Smith

1 comment:

Dan Kocis said...

Good Luck to all and a safe flight and arrival.