Wilford "Rocky" Wilkes is a registered cardiac technician who has worked for the DuBois Regional Medical Center for the past 10 years. Wilkes also works with Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh.
Through his work at Children's, Wilkes met Dr. Brad Keller who asked if he would be willing to use his skills and talents to help children in China and Tibet through an organization called "Touching Hearts in Tibet," which is run through Variety Children's Lifeline International. Wilkes, Keller and a team of about 11 doctors, technicians, and pre-medical students from the United States and China traveled to Beijing and then to Tibet last year.
"We were planning on leaving for a second trip next Tuesday but when the swine flu broke out, China has instituted a seven day waiting period in Beijing before we would be allowed to go to other parts of China," Wilkes said. He said the group has postponed its trip until the ban is lifted. Wilkes said the quarantine makes the trip difficult because while they are in Beijing, no one from the group is allowed to leave the area at all and no patients could come to see the doctors and technicians.
According to Variety Children's Lifeline International's Web site, the organization was founded in 1982 to provide medical assistance to children with treatable and survivable heart conditions in developing countries. Medical facilities, expertise or resources often do not exist in these countries. Lifeline focuses on pediatric cardiac surgeries, but also provides medical care in the areas of pediatric neurosurgeries, cranial-facial procedures, neo-natal clinics, general clinics, pediatric rehabilitative medicine and plastic surgeries for children.
Lifeline has completed more than 500 surgical and clinical missions to more than 55 countries, treating tens of thousands of children through its volunteer program. The teams include volunteer cardiologists, surgeons, anesthesiologists and intensivists, as well as other critical medical staff including perfusionists, respiratory therapists and nurses.
Wilkes said his team was in charge of using medical equipment to scan children for heart defects and abnormalities. Any children with problems are either treated in a heart cauterization lab the team sets up or are sent to a hospital in Beijing if their condition is serious.
"A lot of times these children are dying from a problem that can be treated with a simple heart cauth in other countries," Wilkes said. He said because of the topography of Tibet, children have unique heart abnormalities. He said most infants are born with a small hole in their hearts. The hole will usually close on its own once the child is born and is breathing on their own and is exposed to the natural stresses and air pressures of life outside the womb.
However, with such a high elevation, the child's body is experiencing different internal and external pressures and sometimes the holes do not close. The holes can lead to serious heart problems later in life. Because of the elevation, Wilkes said they are five times more likely to see certain effects in Tibet than they are in lower-lying countries.
Wilkes said he scanned about 1,000 children. He said he often scanned children in his hotel room when they could not make it to the clinic.
"On the last day before we left, our bus driver brought one of his family members in," Wilkes said. "The child had been very small and sickly from birth and the family didn't think anything serious was wrong. I did the scan in my hotel room on the bed and we found a very complex problem. I scanned people in my room almost every night."
Wilkes said what makes Touching Hearts unique is that the team not only performs scans, they train the Tibetan doctors and technicians to use the equipment and the equipment is then donated to Tibet.
"It's kind of interesting because we're actually putting ourselves out of work," Wilkes said. "The purpose of the program is to help them become self-sufficient by teaching them how to use the equipment then giving it to them. Instead of coming in, working for a week, then leaving, we are actually giving them the tools and skills to fix the problem, rather than patching the problem."
While the elevation can cause problems with the Tibetan people, they can also cause problems for the volunteers as well.
"The day we left, we had been in the mountains. The elevation was about 16,000 feet and I ended up getting high-altitude sickness," Wilkes said. "I ended up spending 10 hours in the ICU in a third-world country hooked up to IVs and oxygen."
In spite of his illness, Wilkes said he is looking forward to going back.
"If you're going to give your time, you should be able to feel good about what you're doing," Wilkes said. He said the troubled economy has made it difficult for people to make donations.
For more information or to make a donation, visit http://www.varietychildrenslifeline.org
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