For 20 years, Dr Jeffery Jacobs has visited Jamaica to do life-saving work. As a cardiologist, co-founder and president of Cardiac Kids of Florida, he has led 16 missions to mend little hearts in Jamaica.

Last Friday, February 13, Cardiac Kids Foundation of Florida celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Foundation’s work at Bustamante Hospital for Children, with a garden reception at the Bustamante Hospital for Children (BHC), under the theme: “Building a Legacy: 20 Years of Partnership, Progress and Heart”. The missions of Cardiac Kids of Florida, in collaboration with Chain of Hope Jamaica and Bustamante Hospital, have directly benefitted over 160 children from across the island.

Board Chair of Chain of Hope Jamaica Diane Edwards brought greetings to the attendees of the ceremony including integral members to the formation of the cardiac programme former Minister of Health Dr Fenton Ferguson; former Chairman of the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA) Hon. Lyttleton “Tanny” Shirley; former head of BHC Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Dr. Lambert Innis, Dr. Roger Irvine, Cardiac Surgeon, Dr. Sonia Thomas, retired Senior Medical Officer of the hospital as well as BHC CEO Anthony Wood and the current Senior Medical Officer, Dr Michelle Richards-Dawson; medical representatives from Johns Hopkins University, Edward Life Sciences, and 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 celebratory event in Jamaica 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. The team consisted of surgeons, cardiologists, anaesthesiologists, intensive care doctors, many nurses, perfusionists (who run the heart-lung/bypass machine) and 10 student doctors.

“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 the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, who has been doing missions with the 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.

Sustained Heart Progress

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’s being delivered.”