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The UCLA Initiative Global Neuro Rescue was created to help children from developing nations born with congenital diseases of the brain and spinal cord.
I became aware of their reality through a steady flow of mail sent by parents, caregivers and nonprofit organizations.
Letters arrived from Latin America, Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe requesting help for victims of misperceptions about their diseases.
In some instances the misperception is the idea that the treatment of neurological diseases is expensive, and in others the idea that every effort for these children is futile and that if they survive they will never be independent and productive adults.
The tragedy of this already painful situation is further compounded by the fact that almost all of the congenital diseases of the brain and the spinal cord can be relieved and even cured by a straightforward surgical intervention. In other words, enormous amounts of human suffering could be prevented.
This injustice can be repaired only through a focused and organized effort. The UCLA Global Neuro rescue is a conglomerate of good willed people from different walks of life: lawyers and accountants who helped us create a nonprofit organization; healthcare workers from UCLA who volunteer their time and knowledge.
We all grasp the magnitude of the task ahead of us and are willing to make every possible effort for transforming the fate of children stigmatized by hydrocephalus, spina bifida and other neurological conditions.
It is clear to us that only a multilateral approach will change the perception that diseases of the central nervous system are fatal, or invariably condemn those afflicted to a life without dignity. A vast body of literature and my personal experience conclusively shows that that is not the case. In other words, what is possible in industrialized nations can be possible in developing nations.
The purpose of the UCLA Initiative Global Neuro Rescue is to work side by side with the local physicians. Our surgical teams travel to a country to share with our colleagues (e.g. Guatemala, China or Nigeria) the techniques that allow for effective treatment of different congenital malformations. Two senior neurosurgeons, two senior anesthesiologists and two surgical nurses compose the core of the surgical team. As we believe that exposure to the realities of the less favored is pivotal to grow as physicians and humanists, we try to include in our team at least one physician in training from neurosurgery and one from anesthesia.
Since 2002 we have traveled 14 times to Central and South America, to Eastern Europe and to Asia.
We have performed reparative surgeries in more than 100 children and examined four times that number of patients.
As a result of the interaction with our colleagues in other countries, the foundation is laid for allowing them to pursue the care of their own patients with material support and cooperation from the UCLA Initiative Global Neuro Rescue.
At the Hospital San Juan de Dios in Guatemala City, a unit devoted to the care of children with spina bifida will be inaugurated with material support from the UCLA Global Initiative Neuro Rescue. Doctors from Guatemala are writing with our help a request to the National Institutes of Health for funds for defining the barriers that prevent children with congenital diseases from obtaining proper medical attention in that country.
Inspired by the UCLA Initiative Global Neuro Rescue a group of medical students from UCLA and from Georgia have started a similar research in Nicaragua, where we will travel in the coming months.
Our group is a nonprofit organization. Our list of expenses is frugal, transparent, simple and available to any donor at his/her request. The essence of the UCLA Initiative Global Neuro Rescue resides in the nobility of the people who have worked with us along this many years.
The UCLA Initiative Global Neuro Rescue's intention is that within a decade there will be no need for letters telling us that a child in Alger or in Guatemala has been abandoned or refused treatment in their country.
Jorge Lazareff, M.D., The Geri and Richard Brawerman Chair in Neurosurgery; Director, Pediatric Neurosurgery Program
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