Team Heart is committed to increasing Cardiac Care in Rwanda to the vulnerable teens and children. Providing detection, early intervention including surgical care, and prevention for the treatment of rheumatic heart disease, the leading cause of cardiac death in Rwanda. Rwanda has only 4 Cardiologists for more than 12 million people and Team Heart is committed to partnering with the citizens of Rwanda to improve facilities, critical equipment and skill transfer to make a difference.
In Rwanda, Rheumatic Heart Disease represents about half of the burden of patients needing cardiac surgery, the other half being congenital. However, there are only 4 cardiologists in the entire country. Rwanda does not have cardiac surgery or interventional cardiology programs. Overall cardiac care is nearly non-existent. Because of this, children and young adults succumb to the advancement of the disease, and subsequently die of heart failure, something nearly unheard of in the western world.
Team Heart will help build a Cardiac Care hospital in Rwanda to increase access to care and treat those suffering from heart disease. In addition to awareness and prevention education, the hospital will include: heart surgery, follow up care, and long-term management of heart failure. More lives will be saved, the quality of life and life expectancy will increase. It will bring cardiac care to a people that otherwise have to travel abroad for heart surgery, most whom cannot afford it.
A Cardiac Center will prevent unnecessary deaths of children and young adults who need cardiac surgery urgently. It will give the people of Rwanda a chance to succeed in life by providing treatment early. This will allow them to finish school and support their families. It will have a great economic impact as it will help them return back to work and have healthy lives. The project will encourage and provide transfer of knowledge and education to the local team to maintain sustainability.
This project has provided additional documentation in a DOCX file (projdoc.docx).