Just as our Chagrin Valley Rotary Club’s “Win with Pins” fundraiser was cancelled March 14th, the St. Damien’s Children’s Hospital Consortium Fundraiser at Akron Children’s Hospital and the Rotary All Ohio Presidents-Elect Training Seminar in Columbus were also both cancelled over the same weekend. With the unfortunate need to cancel PET’s, our Gift of Life International CEO was regretfully unable to participate as one of the keynote speakers and in the Gift of Life Northeast Ohio breakout session on Saturday. We were also very much looking forward to meeting Rotary International President-Elect Holger Knaack as were all the Ohio PE’s.However, that Saturday was still a glorious day. Our two-year-old boy Killian from Haiti did have successful open heart surgery on March 10th and was released from Akron Children’s Hospital that very same Saturday, March 14th. How can that be anything but a day of joy!
For those of you that remember, many District 6630 Rotary Clubs viewed a Gift of Life International film several years ago on a very complex heart surgery, “Tetralogy of Fallot.” That was exactly the kind of difficult surgery this little boy had. Yet, he was out of the hospital in four days! Children and the human body are resilient.
Unfortunately, Killian was unable to return home as Haiti had closed her borders. Entry into the country required a Covid-19 test as the Pandemic had gripped the world. A test like that was impossible considering the conditions our country had put upon who could be tested. The next text I received from Dr. Jeff Kempf of the Akron Rotary Club was Killian and his Mom were home in Haiti. It appears between our friends in Haiti’s Ministry of Health and Pediatric Cardiologist John Clark at Akron Children’s, they were able to document Killian had been in the PICU and had not been exposed in any way to Covid-19. A letter from Dr. Clark was sufficient. He then personally drove Killian and his Mom to the airport at 2:30 in the morning on Wednesday, March 18th and they found themselves back home in Haiti by 12:30 in the afternoon.
As Dr. Kempf said, “not bad for a little boy getting open heart surgery during a Pandemic.” None of this is possible without the power of Rotary and all the clubs in our Rotary District 6630 that support Gift of Life NEO. Thank you all.
Ken Fogle
Chair, Gift of Life Northeast Ohio