WCTF Hosts Fundraising and Awareness Dinner

WCTF HOSTS FUNDRAISING AND AWARENESS DINNER

-Event to welcome and honor Dr. Gegham Poghosyan and Dr. Davit Dallakyan-

LOS ANGELES, Calif, July 17, 2010 /WCTF/ — The World Children’s Transplant Fund (WCTF) is hosting a dinner to welcome and honor Dr. Gegham Poghosyan and Dr. Davit Dallakyan, who are visiting from Armenia for six months of training in pediatric liver transplantation at USC University Hospital and Los Angeles Children’s Hospital.

The dinner event will be held August 11, 2010 in the Rococo Room of Cafe Santorini in Pasadena at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $65.00. RSVP is requested by August 6, 2010.

WCTF is providing funding for Dr. Poghosyan and Dr. Dallakyan to receive the specialized transplant training, the goal which is to educate the visiting doctors on pediatric organ transplantation and management of transplant candidates and recipients.

“It is very gratifying to be part of an authentic partnership between the USC University Hospital and the World Children’s Transplant Fund,” said Valerie McCaffrey, chairperson of WCTF’s Armenia Committee. “The training these doctors will receive is the cutting edge for pediatric transplantation, and is not available in Armenia.”

The USC training, which will be headed by Dr. Linda Sher and Dr. Yuri Genyk, will consist of academic and observational study. Once the training is complete, the doctors will return to Sourb Astvatsamayr Medical Center, where they will continue their medical careers and further WCTF’s mission of pediatric organ transplantation.

“We are enormously grateful that Doctors Linda Sher and Yuri Genyk, and their world-class transplant team, are willing to expend the time and effort in teaching the latest advancements in pediatric organ transplantation to eager visiting surgeons who will invest six months of their time into the partnership,” said McCaffrey.

WCTF is providing the doctors with a living stipend and reimbursement for expenses incidental to their stay. WCTF also is providing medical insurance for each doctor, and a shared apartment. While receiving their training, the doctors will remain employees of Sourb Astvatsamayr Medical Center in Armenia.

“The return on this investment is a human one, one that will be reflected in the healthy lives of Armenia’s children who will benefit from the new-found skills of the returning transplant surgeons,” said McCaffrey. “The spinoff of this project will be felt for many years in Armenia’s pediatric medical community and the children served by it.”

Poghosyan and Dallakyan are licensed, practicing surgeons at Sourb Astvatsamayr Medical Center. Poghoyan graduated from Yerevan State Medical University in 1997. After post-doctoral training in Moscow, he joined Sourb Astvatsamayr as a surgeon in 2007. Dallakyan graduated from Yerevan State Medical University in 2006. After his residency in Pediatric Surgery at Sourb Astvatsamayr, he joined the medical center as a staff pediatric surgeon. Both men have been selected by the Medial Center and WCTF as highly talented, dedicated individuals. They are both fluent in English.

For additional background on the partnership between USC and WCTF, in addition to information about the ongoing transplant needs in Armenia, please see:

https://www.wctf.org/wctf-partners-with-usc-to-train-doctors/

Source: World Children’s Transplant Fund

CONTACT:

For information about the Armenian doctors, the dinner event, and related info: Valerie McCaffrey – Armenia Chair. Phone: (818)785-1886

Web Site: http://www.WCTF.org/