UK-based medical mission performs 10 cardiac procedures at Jamaica’s children hospital

The procedures were done in the Biplane Cardiac Catheterisation Lab, which is located at the recently opened Paediatric Cardiac Centre at the hospital.

The mission was led by Dr. Shakeel Quereshi from Evelina Children’s Hospital in the United Kingdom.

In an interview with JIS News, Communications Manager for Chain of Hope UK, Oroyo Eubanks, pointed out that Dr. Quereshi did both diagnostic and interventional procedures.

“For diagnostic procedures the doctor is able to tell the kind of intervention that the children need, and the interventional procedures fix whatever complications they may have,” he said.

Mr. Eubanks explained that the procedures are being done as part of Chain of Hope’s effort to provide well-needed support for Jamaica and that this effort has been bolstered by the recent opening of the biplane catheterisation lab, which is a part of the new paediatric cardiac facility at the children’s hospital.

“What we decided to do this year is to send teams regularly to support the programme here in Jamaica, so they can continually do surgeries on children in the island,” he said.

Mr. Eubanks noted that the number of missions per year is dependent on the needs of each country.

“In Jamaica, because of the infancy of the Cardiac Centre, we are trying to do at least two missions every other month, so that we can support the team here and give them the resources needed to do surgery on a regular basis,” he said. He pointed out that one of the main sources of support being provided for the team at Bustamante is ICU nurses, as the current shortage would hamper the surgeries continuing at the facility.

Mr. Eubanks noted that during the week of July 15, eight open-heart surgeries were performed by another Chain of Hope Medical Mission Team in the Cardiac Unit. He pointed out that a total of 193 operations have been done in the unit since it became operational in 2017.