The Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach pediatric heart surgery team ready themselves for the day of surgery ahead of them at Philippine Children’s Medical Center in Quezon City, Philippines.

For the surgeons, nurses and specialists at the Pediatric Heart Center at Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach saving a life is not limited to their hospital. In early October the pediatric heart surgery team organized a trip to the Philippines to perform corrective surgery on children in dire need of help. During their eight day trip the Miller Children’s team was able to screen for the most severe cases and perform surgeries on a total of 10 children, almost all of which would have not survived were it not for their surgeries.

Currently, in the Philippines, the only children that have cardiac surgery available to them are the children of the wealthy or the insured. There is no non-profit solution or available means of finding a proper surgeon for all other families. In association with Gift of Life International, Miller Children’s was able to lay the groundwork for a new heart surgery program at Philippine Children’s Medical Center in Quezon City, Philippines.

Through the combined efforts of Gift of Life International and the pediatric heart teams at both Miller Children’s and Duke University, Philippine Children’s Medical Center received training and instruction on corrective heart surgery in order for them to establish the first dedicated pediatric heart center in the Philippines. After months of planning, the team at Miller Children’s donated their vacation time to travel to the Philippines together and save some lives.

In order to make this trip a reality the team had to gather supplies for the trip in the months prior. Thanks to generous donations from several local and national companies the team was able to pack everything they needed into 25 duffel bags and take the necessary equipment with them to the Philippines.

“Philippine Children’s Medical Center has most of the personnel necessary to build the center, but they lack the necessary training and resources to perfom complex cardiac surgeries on a regular basis,” says Shaun Setty, M.D., medical director, Pediatric and Adult Congenital Cardiac Surgery, Pediatric Heart Center, Miller Children’s. “When we went to the Philippines it wasn’t about saving a few lives and leaving. We were there to start what we hope will become an efficient and self-sustaining program.”

The surgery team that made the trip included pediatric cardiac surgeon, Shaun Setty M.D.; anesthesiologist, Cleopatra Patterson M.D.; pediatric cardiologist, Brandy Hattendorf M.D.; pediatric intensivist, Chris Babbitt M.D.; pediatric intensivist, Marco Ayulo M.D.; pediatric perfusionist, Jason Chmel C.C.P.; cardiac operating room nurses, Nina Nagel R.N. and Sandy Tolentino R.N.; and pediatric intensive care unit nurses, Caroline Kwong R.N., Kirsti Catton R.N., Monica Mofla R.N., Sarah Ann Beechler R.N. and Liz Kelly R.N.

Dr. Setty performs cardiac surgery on a young patient at Philippine Children’s Medical Center in Quezon City, Philippines.

Pediatric perfusionist Jason Chmel C.C.P., is at the ready during one of 10 surgeries performed at Philippine Children’s Medical Center in Quezon City, Philippines.

A large group of families gather at Philippine Children’s Medical Center in Quezon City, Philippines to have their children screened for their upcoming surgeries.