After the Successful Surgery!

SUNDAY, MARCH 4, 2001 - TWO WEEKS AFTER SURGERY!

A picture is worth a thousand words! Amela is in great spirits, and gone is the yellowish color and her sick countenance. In fact, she shows her incandescent beauty, appropriate for a 14 year old girl with a long, healthy life in front of her. And Amela has a new admirer. After her picture was flashed in the local media, several young men showed up to say hello pay their "respects" :-)

Amela is hungry!
Tiene apetito!

Amela and Croatian/Argentine Volunteers

Amela continues to be surrounded by volunteers from the Argentine Croatian community, who have taken turns to provide her and her family with friendship, emotional support, translation services, and in the case of her family, with travel to and from the hospital. Our experience with Veronica Arguello ten years ago, taught us that cultural uprooting can be compensated in part by contacting wonderful volunteers of the patient's home country. It makes all the difference in the world. It is a gift for the patient and her family, and also for the Croatian volunteers here in Argentina, who feel very Argentine yet never forget their roots, customs and their language.

Amela and her nurse

Amela's care at the Favaloro Foundation Hospital has been nothing but outstanding! These highly trained professionals have taken enormous pride in participating in this procedure. The whole case has been totally devoid of any complications. This is a textbook case of a successful liver transplant!

Jasmin, his mother Ferida, and Doctor Richard Low of the WCTF rejoice at the new home of the Argentine Liver Transplant foundation

Meanwhile, Jasmin who was released from the hospital yesterday, is fully ambulatory and feels in excellent spirits. It seems unbelievable that only two weeks ago, he gave up 60% of his liver to save his sister!

Jasmin, as all liver donors, is the unsung hero of this wonderful story. Having a family of his own to support and being the sole breadwinner of the entire extended family of ten people, this 24 year old young man, who has had to grow up so fast and has so much responsibility on his shoulders, did not think a minute at the chance to save his sister's life.

Jamin and his mother Ferida are staying at the home founded by Sister Gladys and Doctor Aziz here in Buenos Aires, who have used only VOLUNTEER EFFORT. With money and construction work donated by private individuals in this economically depressed country, Doctor Aziz and Sister Gladys built a home for any and all transplantees and their families during the time of the surgery and the long recovery time needed. The home receives no government support or assistance of any kind. Yet, they never ask for ability to pay. They did not even ask us in the case of Amela and her family. They simply took the family in. A week later, our Foundation made a contribution of 1,000 dollars for the care of Amela. Even with these very modest funds, they are able to keep going, and in fact they are also supporting other family who arrived from the interior of Argentina and whose child will receive a liver transplant this week at another Argentine institution (there are several centers in Argentina that provide transplant services). Sometimes, as many as 35 people have stayed at this home at any one time. Thus, the money to save patients like Amela, helps the WCTF due its mission as well.

Jasmin, and his mother Ferida, say goodby from their floor at the home for the Transplatee and their families at the Argentine Transplant Foundation

The future looks brighter for this family thanks to this gift from our outstanding and anonymous US donors. We hope to have proved that this project makes sense.

When is a life more than a life!

The WCTF wishes to thank the wonderful and anonymous American Donors who have made this operation on Amela and her brother possible. For one third the price, a life has been saved and countless others improved, as the funds cannot help but to help charitable organizations like the Home for the Transplantee in Buenos Aires, and the non-profit world-class Favaloro Foundation, which is undergoing such severe economic hardships while being totally capable of doing these miraculous procedures with ease. This institution, in turn saves hundreds of impoverished children in this region. Not only that: The Amela donation donation proves the feasibility of creating and then supporting transplant centers in developing countries. Thanks to the faith our American donors displayed, now many more folks can be convinced that it makes far more sense to spend a third of the money to save lives in emerging high technology medicine so that hopefully as centers are created in Bosnia and in other parts of the world, no more Amelas will have to make these trips in the future. Our profound thanks to you!

MANY THANKS IN AMELA'S NAME!
MUCHAS GRACIAS EN NOMBRE DE AMELA!
Thanks, Amela, in the name of all of the world's children!
Gracias Amela, en nombre de todos los niños del mundo!