Gift of Life Northeast Ohio (GoL NEO) serves children and their extended families from the developing world who do not have access to cardiac care. For these children, GoL NEO is their last hope.
GoL NEO has successfully progressed from serving “one child at a time” to helping create children’s heart centers in the developing world. This model allows for not only training of local surgeons and staff, but helps provide surgical services to more children. This is the long term goal of GoL NEO.
GoL NEO has hosted over 50 children from the developing world who have come to Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital for repair of their defective hearts. Recently, GoL NEO has also partnered with Akron Children’s Hospital to bring children from Haiti for heart surgery.
What we have achieved
- 55 + children to NE Ohio for Open heart surgery since 2003
- 40 + children in 5 training teams into Kenya including the February 2015 team to Tenwek Hospital
- 70 open heart surgeries/year on their own in Nicaragua after 4 years of ICHF training “Corizon Abeirto”
- Egypt in 2 years, 294 children had open heart surgery – 253 by Egyptians on their own – 300 cath procedures ~ 600 kids!