Hope against Hydrocephalus
The Esperanza program for children with Hydrocephalus consists of providing a pediatric ventriculoperitoneal shunt system and medical-surgical supplies to patients diagnosed with congenital hydrocephalus in Monagas State, Venezuela.
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The causes of hydrocephalus are not all well understood. Hydrocephalus can result from genetic inheritance or from developmental disorders such as those associated with neural tube defects, including spina bifida and encephalocele.
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Other possible causes are complications of premature birth, such as intraventricular hemorrhage, diseases such as meningitis, tumors, traumatic head injury, or subarachnoid hemorrhage that blocks the ventricles from leaving the cisterns and eliminates the cisterns themselves.
objectives
Save the lives of at least 20 low-income children with congenital hydrocephalus in the state of Monagas.
Acquire 20 pediatric ventriculoperitoneal systems and the surgical medical supplies required by each child to be operated on.
How do we do it?
For this program we work in collaboration with the Fundación Una Nueva Esperanza, located in the city of MaturÃn, Venezuela, who are in charge of managing the surgical interventions directly with the treating doctors of the Manuel Núñez Tovar Hospital and the direct families of the patients.
The age of the children is between 1 day to 14 months old. The families of these patients have limited economic resources and therefore prompt help is urgently needed to operate on them as soon as possible.