Jamaica Mission

On March 30, 2008, fifteen health care volunteers comprising of one heart surgeon, one cardiologist, one
intensivist, one I.C.U. cardiologist, one anesthesiologist, two operating room nurses, six critical care nurses, two perfusionists, and one mission coordinators from the Congenital Heart Institute of Florida; two medical coordinators from the Caribbean Heart Menders Association embarked on a pediatric cardiovascular surgical mission to the Bustamante Hospital for Children in Kingston, Jamaica.

The purpose of this mission was to perform corrective open-heart surgeries on children with congenital heart disease. All cases were successful and the children are now living healthy lives. An additional 13 patients were evaluated. Total donated services and equipment was $192,000. This includes the donation of a heart lung machine that provides oxygen and blood to the body as the surgeon works on the heart.

These life saving surgeries were performed from March 31, 2008 through April 3, 2008 and included moderately complex congenital heart disease, from ventricular septal defects to Tetralogy of Fallot repairs.

While the medical terminologies or idioms used to describe the past missions could very well be Russian to most of us, it translates to lives saved as a result of selfless actions from the Caribbean Heart Menders Association medical team.

Dominican Republic Mission

In June 2008, a similar mission was performed at CEDIMAT hospital in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

This mission was lead by Dr. Eliot Rosenkranz and a similarly diverse group of 14 volunteers. They worked closely with the local team and performed eight complex heart surgeries.

The program at CEDIMAT has made significant developments. They are performing a significant numbers of surgeries on their own and are well on their way to becoming an independent center of excellence. We are truly proud to see the significant progress this center has made. The total amount of donated services during that mission was $156,000.

Interventional Cardiac Catheterization in Trinidad and Tobago.

In January of 2005, two pediatrics cardiologists from south Florida, Dr. Alvaro Galindo, interventional Pediatric cardiologist at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital and Dr. Scarlet Sinistera, Pediatric cardiology fellow, spent one week in Trinidad and Tobago performing interventional catheterizations in children with congenital heart defects. A total of ten pulmonary valvuloplasty were performed.

Haiti is the poorest Caribbean country in the western hemisphere and cardiac care for Haitian children with congenital heart defects is very limited. In July of 2004, Drs. Ming Young and Serge Geffrard formed Project Haiti Heart to provide cardiac care for children in Haiti with congenital heart defects. In September of 2004, Project Haiti Heart became part of CHMA. In October of 2004 CHMA supported the first trip to Haiti.