[P24-05] International Children’s Heart Foundationでの国際医療ボランティア
Keywords:心臓手術, 国際協力, 医療支援
Background: The International Children’s Heart Foundation (ICHF) is a non-governmental organization providing congenital cardiac surgery services to the developing world. Since the first medical mission in Croatia in 1993, ICHF has been providing services at 49 sites spanning all continents, performing a total of 7888 surgeries to date. The author would like to share the experience as a medical volunteer for a mission performed in the Dominican Republic.The medical mission: This was the first medical mission at the Hospital Infantil Dr. Roberto Reid Cabral in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The mission team led by cardiac surgeon Dr. Rodrigo Soto, consisted of a pediatric cardiologist, intensivist, anesthesiologist, intensive care and surgical nurses, perfusionist and biomedical engineer. There were 3 ICHF staff and the other participants were volunteers from North America and Central America. The local team had a well established pediatric cardiology team and general ICU team, however had a lack of pediatric cardiac surgeons and experience in pediatric cardiac surgery. The purpose of the mission was not only to offer surgery to patients in need, but to support establishing a public congenital heart disease program in the Dominican Republic. During the 11-day mission, a total of 13 surgeries were performed. Results: Since the initial success of the first medical mission in 2016, ICHF has performed 4 yearly missions resulting in 118 cardiac surgeries in total.