Community Corner

Good Shepherd Hospital Provides Heart Treatments to Salvadorian Teens

Non-profit group Healing the Children arranged the medical mission to Barrington.

Written by Editor Amie Schaenzer

Three teens from El Salvador are temporarily staying with area foster families as they get much-needed treatment for a heart disorder at Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington. 

Jose, 14, Jasmine, 16 and Cecilia, 14, arrived at O'Hare International Airport in recent days with plans to begin their cardiac care on Thursday or Friday. The teens are staying with host foster families in Lake in the Hills, Arlington Heights and Elmhurst, according to an Advocate Good Shepherd press release. 

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Each of the children suffers from arrhythmia, which is a problem with the rate and rhythm of the heartbeat and can cause damage to the brain, heart and other organs. During an arrhythmia, the heart may not be able to pump enough blood to the body, according to the news release. 

“We will be doing a procedure called an electrophysiology study with catheter ablation where we insert thin electrode catheters into blood vessels which are then guided to the heart,” said  Raymond Kawasaki, a cardiac electrophysiologist at Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital. “We then identify the abnormal heart tissue which is causing the arrhythmia and destroy it by applying heat or freezing energy through one of these catheters. Once this is done, the patient can be cured of their arrhythmia. ” 

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Healing the Children, a non-profit organization, helped arrange the medical mission. Healing the Children is a charity devoted to matching children in need from countries lacking available medical treatment with physicians and hospitals in the U.S. with the capabilities to help and the willingness to donate their services. 

“We anticipate these three children can be treated for their abnormal heart rhythms and hope to give them an opportunity to live a normal life,” Kawasaki said. 


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