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WCTF Costa Rica Center

On November 7, 1999, four-and-a-half-year-old Luis received part of a lobe of his father's liver in a twelve-hour transplant operation that saved his life. He is now a healthy, active child. Without the surgery, he would have died within a matter of months.

Luis' transplant took place at the National Children's Hospital in San José, Costa Rica, and was arranged by the World Children's Transplant Fund's Costa Rica center, the "Fundación Mundial de Trasplantes para Niños." WCTF did not pay for Luis' transplant--yet, had it not been for WCTF, his surgery would not have been possible. What did WCTF do?

In 1989, Mark Kroeker met with Costa Rican government officials and interested citizens to discuss the establishment of a pediatric organ transplantation facility in their country.

WCTF subsequently provided the seed money to fund this effort. We helped get legislation passed so that organ donation and transplantation would be fully legal there. In 1990, we opened an office in San José and began the process of cultivating relationships in the local medical and business communities. We raised more money here in the U.S., facilitated donations of medical equipment and pharmaceuticals, and arranged for specialized training for Costa Rican doctors and nurses.

Several years later, a "Veronica House" was built to house the children and their families during pre- and post-operative care.

Today, an educational display at the Costa Rica Children's Museum helps educate the public about the crucial importance of organ donation.

Prior to WCTF's involvement in Costa Rica, a limited number of pediatric kidney and bone marrow transplants were being done, but there had been no pediatric heart or liver transplants. Now, all types of transplants are being performed, with a very high degree of success.

The lion's share of credit for this dramatic improvement in medical services goes to an amazing woman named Elizabeth Rojas, whom WCTF hired to direct the operation. Our Costa Rican "Angel," through her passionate dedication and very hard work, carried out WCTF's "Three T" mission objectives to make pediatric organ transplantation a reality in Costa Rica and elsewhere in Central America.

For some time now, the Fundación Mundial de Trasplantes para Niños has been essentially a self-sustaining entity, receiving only occasional grants from WCTF for special projects.

Luis' and another child's surgeries were performed by Dr. Koichi Tanaka from Japan. These were the first "living-related-donor" liver transplants ever performed in Central America. Dr. Tanaka, whose participation was facilitated by a member of WCTF's medical advisory board, was supported by members of his Japanese team as well as medical personnel at the Hospital Nacional de Niños.

The Costa Rican team received invaluable training as part of this process. Dr. Tanaka returned in March of 2000 to perform three more such surgeries--and as this mailing goes to press, he is preparing for a third trip to Costa Rica on December 26, 2000, to perform more transplants and provide additional training. Dr. Tanaka has stated that after this upcoming trip, he thinks the Costa Rican team will be ready to "fly solo" on living-related-donor transplants.

For approximately the same amount of money WCTF has invested in our Costa Rican operation since its inception, we could have brought only one or two children to the United States and paid for them to be transplanted here. Instead, more than 100 children in Central America who otherwise would have died are alive and healthy today. We think that's a great return on our investment. We hope you agree, and that you find WCTF's mission and success worthy of your own investment and support.

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