GoodHeart | 20 years of healing hearts in Jamaica

For 20 years, Dr Jeffery Jacobs has travelled to Jamaica to perform life-saving work. As a cardiologist and co-founder and president of Cardiac Kids of Florida, he has led 16 missions to repair young hearts across the island.

Last Friday, the Cardiac Kids Foundation of Florida marked the 20th anniversary of its work with a garden reception at Bustamante Hospital for Children, under the theme, ‘Building a Legacy: 20 Years of Partnership, Progress and Heart’.

Through its missions, in collaboration with Chain of Hope Jamaica and Bustamante Hospital, the foundation has directly benefited more than 160 children.

Chain of Hope Jamaica board chair Diane Edwards delivered greetings to attendees of the ceremony, which included key figures in the formation of the cardiac programme, as well as medical representatives from Johns Hopkins University and Edwards Lifesciences, as well as clinicians from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Texas Children’s Hospital, and several other sponsors and donors.

Daniel Newlin, an American attorney, entrepreneur, and serving United States ambassador to Colombia, attended the event as a principal donor and supporter of this outreach programme.

The day of activities included a paint-and-sip session with 20 present and past surgery recipients. There, the surgeons and the returning staff were able to see and interact with the children, and the now-adults, on whom they had operated throughout the 20 years.

“It’s emotional for me to see these children, some of whom had surgeries 18 or 19 years ago. Now, they are in college, studying to be nurses, and starting their own families; it’s absolutely, positively, just miraculous,” said Dr Jacobs, who is a paediatric heart surgeon and professor of surgery and paediatrics at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

During the week of February 9 to 13, his team of over 60 overseas volunteers worked with BHC’s team to perform 13 surgeries on children with life-threatening heart problems.

“When we leave there’ll be 13 children with fixed hearts and we expect that [within a week] they’ll be home, happy and healthy,” Dr Jacobs explained.

Among the surgeons is Dr Vinay Badhwar, president of society of Thoracic Surgeons, who has been doing missions with foundation in Jamaica since 2010. His work focuses on complex heart valve repair surgeries in children with rheumatic heart disease or complications from rheumatic fever. He explained that the mission’s singular goal is to give the children an opportunity they might not have had, without surgery.

“These children have very complex hearts. If you can rebuild a valve, you can rebuild a heart; and if you rebuild the heart, you sustain or rebuild a life. These children are now grown up, are doing well and it’s great to see,” he said. At the reception, Dr Badhwar met with Daniel Faskin, on whom he operated in 2014. Faskin is now a certified chef running his own business.

Dr Jacobs explained that the most important part of the team’s time is collaborating with local Jamaican doctors and nurses.

“The programme is now the largest self-sustaining paediatric heart programme in the entire Caribbean and should be a significant point of pride for Jamaica,” Dr Jacobs beamed. “The doctors and nurses who currently run the cardiac programme at Bustamante were residents or in training when we started here 20 years ago. I must acknowledge the best paediatric heart surgeon in the entire Caribbean, Dr Sherard Little, as a treasured and valued resource to Jamaica.”

The infrastructural progress is also evident as in the first years of the missions, the complex cardiac surgeries were led by Dr Jacob’s volunteer surgical teams at the Kingston Public Hospital and at the UHWI. Since 2019, however, the operations have been performed at the Caribbean’s first state-of-the-art Paediatric Cardiac Centre at the BHC and led by the Jamaican cardiothoracic, cardiology, anaesthesiologists and the other critical clinical teams.

“Part of the progress is seeing the sustainability of Bustamante Hospital Cardiac programme,” Dr Badhwar explained. “We have experts here now – expert surgeons, perfusionists, and nurses – so when we [the overseas mission] come, we see the fruits of labour from years past and enjoy watching the excellence that being delivered.”

goodheart@gleanerjm.com