International Children’s Heart Foundation 70 successful surgeries undertaken in 18 months

Jul 02, 2016 News

The Baby Heart Foundation

The International Children’s Heart Foundation also known as “The Baby Heart Foundation” has been sending the Baby Heart team to Guyana for almost two years.
These trips have been at an interval of every four months.
Twenty-three Baby Heart team members during their most recent trip to Guyana worked along with local medical staff at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) to perform these cardiac related procedures on children between the ages of three months old and 20 months.
During this recent trip, Chief Executive Officer of Clinical Operations of the Baby Heart Foundation, Dr. Rodrigo Soto, said that 13 surgeries were successfully performed in addition to 14 “interventional procedures”.
Over the course of five trips the Baby Heart Team has to date, performed 70 successful cardiac related surgeries with one fatality which occurred on June 25, last.
The Baby Heart team worked assiduously to save the patient, but the fatality was unavoidable, since the patient was in need of a heart transplant.
Dr. Soto explained that the patient had previously had complications that in any other developed country a heart transplant would have been necessary in order for the patient to live.
In addition to performing cardiac-related procedures, the Baby Heart Foundation has also been helping to build the capacity of the GPHC staff to cater to paediatric cardiac patients.
According to Soto, the team has seen progress in the training of local staff but they still have a long way to go.
He explained that the foundation has continued its bedside training for cardiology unit nurses and physicians and they plan to maintain this training online.

Dr. Soto said that following discussions with Minister of Public Health, Dr. George Norton; the Baby Heart Foundation team will be increasing the number of trips they make to Guyana, annually, from four-month to three months intervals.
According to him, within the next five years, staff of the GPHC Paediatric ward will be able to independently run the programme. Their next trip is scheduled for September of this year.