High hopes for children receiving heart surgery

Between 200-300 children in Jamaica are born with heart conditions annually, many of whom require surgery, according to Professor Jeff Jacobs of the Cardiac Kids Foundation of Florida.

Jacobs, along with members of his team, is currently in the island to operate on 10 children who are in urgent need of heart operations.

"All of these children that we are operating on this week, without heart surgery will die of their heart disease in childhood. With surgery, if everything goes well, they will be able to live fairly normal lives. They can live into their 40s, 50s, 60s and go to school and have children of their own. These are true life-saving surgeries," he said.

Jacobs was speaking to media personnel yesterday at the Bustamante Hospital for Children (BHC) where the operations are being done. This initiative also includes the Chain of Hope Jamaica (COHJ) and the BHC cardiothoracic team with the main goal being to treat these children who are on the hospital's cardiology waiting list.

Jacobs, who is currently chief of the division of cardiovascular surgery and director of the Andrews/Daicoff Cardiovascular Program at Johns Hopkins' All Children's Heart Institute, has been coming to Jamaica since 2004. He has operated on 14 different mission trips and on more than 160 children at the BHC.

"There are children that I have operated on who are now adults and they probably have children of their own. Operating on the children and seeing them get well is phenomenal, but watching the programme grow and being able to operate on children here independently is a great feeling. One part of what we do is treat the children, but a bigger part is having an exchange of knowledge between the local team and our team and everybody leaves here better," Jacobs said.

Four children, between two and four years old, have undergone successful operations this week. They are currently in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and reportedly recovering well.

"The children that were operated on yesterday (Tuesday) and today (Wednesday) are already walking around in the ICU. They are very cute. I woke up to the nurses sending me videos of these children taking funny photos. They are doing great and our goal is that all 10 children will leave here with their hearts fixed so that they can live normal lives. We have a beautiful four-year-old that we operated on Monday who has already gone for a walk down the hallway outside," Jacobs said.

Chairperson of COHJ Dianne Edwards said it is amazing to see the children before and after their surgeries.

"Before their surgeries, a lot of them have no energy and look really kinda lifeless, like a rag doll. Then, suddenly after the surgery they perk up and are full of life," she said.

Jacobs said he and members of his team, as well as local medical experts, would communicate continuously to ensure that the pieces are in place for a successful mission trip. This includes discussions about the patients, including their diagnosis and the type of operation they require.

"Open heart surgery on a child is always complex as there are a million things that could go wrong. If you make a mistake in any little step of it, bad things will happen. To do successful heart surgeries, one must have a team of surgeons, cardiologists, nurses and other professionals, and the team must work together perfectly. What is fascinating about this is that our team is a mixture of professionals from Florida and Jamaica, and the goal is to just make the babies well," Jacobs said.