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t m c » p u l s e | a p r i l 2 0 1 6 32 32 Delivering Hope After a brain tumor left him unable to walk for nearly a year, a 10-year-old Haitian boy traveled to the Texas Medical Center to receive a life saving surgery B y B r i t n i N . R i l e y F or the past three years, UTHealth pediatric neuro- surgeon David Sandberg, M.D., has led a group of nurses from Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital and residents and physicians from McGovern Medical School to Haiti to provide neurological care for Haitian children who would otherwise not receive it. The team members use their own vacation time to travel to the Hospital Bernard Mevs in Haiti for five days in early December, leaving Houston with suitcases packed to the brim with medical supplies they collected over the past year to ensure they have everything they need to care for their patients as they do here in the United States. "The need is overwhelming," said Sandberg, director of pediatric neurosurgery at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital and Memorial Hermann Mischer Neuroscience Institute (MNI) at the Texas Medical Center. "There are no pediatric neurosur- geons in Haiti, and families come from all over the country for care when they hear that a team from the United States is coming. Most of the children have diseases which are very advanced because of their lack of access to care." Saving the life of any child is meaningful, but saving the life of a child from the poorest country in our hemisphere who had no hope of living without this surgery feels like our own small miracle. — DAVID SANDBERG, M.D. Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital and Memorial Hermann Mischer Neuroscience Institute at the Texas Medical Center pressing down on Caleb's brainstem, leaving him with severe headaches and unable to walk. UTHealth pediatric neurosurgeon Manish Shah, M.D., Sandberg's partner at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital and MNI, and a fellow volunteer in Haiti, performed an endoscopic third ventriculostomy— a minimally invasive procedure to treat the hydro- cephalus. Caleb's headaches improved. He still needed surgery to remove the tumor, a procedure that would take eight hours and would not be safe to perform in Haiti, given the lack of resources. "Caleb's tumor had reached a critical point and it was causing severe pressure on his brainstem, which controls heart rate, blood pressure and breathing," Sandberg said. "Short of us going to Haiti and finding Caleb, he would have eventually slipped into a coma and died." Once Sandberg returned home, he immediately began working to bring Caleb to the United States for surgery. His first stop was to see Susie Distefano, chief executive officer of Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital. "I told Ms. Distefano about Caleb. I informed her that he would need an eight-hour brain surgery, several days in the intensive care unit, MRI scans, and require anesthesia, among other things. Immediately, "It is like doing a year's worth of work in five days," said Linda Mobley, operating room clinical coordina- tor at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital. "We will see and treat as many patients as we can and we usually work from sun-up to sun-down every day." During their most recent trip in December 2015, Sandberg and his team met a 10-year-old boy named Caleb who had been unable to walk since March 2015. After an examination, Sandberg realized Caleb was suffering from hydrocephalus—a buildup of fluid in the cavities deep within the brain—caused by a massive tumor in his brain. The tumor had been growing and David Sandberg, M.D., with patient Caleb and his mother Bernita, and at right with the care team at Hospital Bernard Mevs in Haiti. (Credit: Memorial Hermann)