THE BACK STORY
With the help and initiative of members of the local Bolivian community, CFHI staff was able to fundraise over $5000 USD by visiting several Bay Area Latino Radio stations and asking for donations for the purchase of medical supplies for Bolivian pediatric hospitals.

HOSPITAL DEL NINO

Dra. Uribe & her staff

The Hospital del Nino (Children’s Hospital), located in Bolivia’s capital is one of the oldest and largest hospitals in La Paz. It serves the poorest of the poor, and is where CFHI students who study on the Pediatric Health program there engage in service-learning under the supervision of the local medical teams.

A 160-bed facility for children, it is virtually always full…and resources are always scarce. And this scarcity of resources has a profound impact on the health of the people. There’s no health insurance for the majority of the hospital patients, with most of them responsible for buying their own medicines and supplies for treatment. This is especially true of neonatal patients.

To give you an example of the scarcity of resources, cleaning staff hand wash not only hospital linens and clothing but also surgical and regular exam gloves, disposable surgical scrubs, lab equipment, and sterilization equipment.

JAUNDICE IN BOLIVIA
Jaundice is a problem that affects the majority of neonatal infants that are born in Hospital del Nino. Without a heat lamp or phototherapy unit that is functional to treat newborns affected with jaundice, physicians cannot administer the best care to infants, and diminishing the chances of a healthy start to a baby’s life. Moreover, there is a possibility that complications could arise and, if untreated, death.

PAST DONATIONS

We were successful in sending life-saving laparoscopic surgical equipment to Hospital del Nino last year with the help of the US Air force. Worth over $60,000, what this high quality surgery equipment will do is enable doctors to perform minimally invasive surgeries, and therefore reduce patient complications in post-operative care. We also brought CFHI partner, Dr. Galindo to Stanford to train under one of the leading OBGYN surgeons in the U.S., Dr. Nazhat.

Children at Hospital del Ninos

SUPPLIES BOUGHT WITH $5000 USD DONATIONS
The funds raised by this campaign went a long well. Here’s how the money was spent by CFHI’s local medical teams:

• 3 PHOTOTHERAPY UNITS
• 4 WALL MOUNTED X-RAY VIEW BOXES
• 3 NEBULIZERS
• 4 INFANT SCALES
• 3 INSTRUMENT TABLES
• 6 PEDIATRIC TENSIOMETERS
• 3 GLUCOMETERS
• 16 NEONATAL STETHOSCOPES

End note
This campaign demonstrates the power of community across borders – it also shows how much can be achieved in such a short space of time…15 minutes on a radio show.

The Bolivian Heat Lamp Campaign is closed, but we would like to invite you to support other projects as a part of CFHI’s vision to Advance Quality Healthcare for All.

To do so, just click on Donate Now. It’s quick and secure.