Aug 4, 2009 5:51 pm US/Eastern
Doctors Dedicated To Fixing Kids "Broken Hearts"
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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Sick children in the Dominican Republic who suffered from congenital heart defects have benefited from life-saving surgery thanks to a group of South Florida doctors and nurses.
CBS News
Sick children in the Dominican Republic who suffered from congenital heart defects have benefited from life-saving surgery thanks to a group of South Florida doctors and nurses. For the past few years, a team from Jackson Memorial Hospital has been traveling to the Dominican Republic to provide surgery for children in need.
They're called
Caribbean Heart Menders, a team of medical professionals who volunteer their time and talents to help children in third world Caribbean countries who are affected by congenital and acquired heart defects.
Dr. Eliot Rosenkranz is a cardiothoracic surgeon at Jackson Memorial Hospital who recently returned from the Dominican Republic. He's brought his knowledge there several times and can see the difference he and others have made.
He says that without surgery, many of the children who suffered from end stages of congenital heart disease wouldn't have survived more than a few more years without surgery.
In the U.S., when a child is born with a heart defect, it's usually corrected within the first year of life. That is not the case in other parts of the world.
What they lack in the Dominican Republic is the proper training. For that reason, pediatric heart surgeries rarely took place there, but now that's changed thanks to the Caribbean Heart Menders.
In addition to providing life-saving surgery for children in need, Caribbean Heart Menders also help train medical professionals and develop local hospitals to be able to treat patients on their own.
Caribbean Heart Menders Association (CHMA) is a non-profit organization, based in South Florida. It has provided more than 200 life-saving heart surgeries for Caribbean children since 1994.
Click here for more information about Caribbean Heart Menders.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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