Dr. Jacobs of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Heart Institute leads cardiac healthcare mission in Jamaica

All Children’s Hospital pediatric cardiovascular surgeon Jeffrey Jacobs, M.D., led a team of 60 physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals from throughout the United States and world on a special medical mission to Kingston, Jamaica to treat children for a variety of cardiac related medical conditions.

Dr. Jacobs, as well as other physicians from All Children’s and healthcare organizations, spent one week in May partnering with Kingston’s Bustamante Hospital for Children. They performed 11 cardiac surgeries, provided cardiac catheterizations and interventional cardiology procedures for several other children, and made sure dozens of others received medical management in an outpatient clinic.

Under Dr. Jacobs’ leadership, the team has operated on more than 90 children since the first trip in 2006.

“In addition to doing surgery, we are also doing training,” said Dr. Jacobs, Director of the Andrews/Daicoff Cardiovascular Program at The Johns Hopkins All Children’s Heart Institute and Professor of Cardiac Surgery at Johns Hopkins University. “Education is a big part of our objective. While we want to operate on as many children as we can and save as many lives as we can, we also want to partner with the Jamaican team and empower them so they have the skill set to do more and more of this on their own.”

Money to fund the annual mission comes from the Cardiac Kids of Florida Foundation, which Dr. Jacobs founded. In addition to donated equipment, the mission has received support from Larry King Cardiac Foundation, St. Jude Medical, Edwards Life Sciences, Chain of Hope, Gift of Life, and Rotary International. All the doctors and nurses who make the trip donate their time. It takes a year to raise the money needed to ship equipment, arrange for transportation, housing and food to feed the team. Dr. Jacobs also credits Jennifer Carapellucci, RN, Heart Transplant Coordinator at the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Heart Institute, for devoting hundreds of hours every year to coordinate the logistics of each mission.

The first two-to-three years we went to Jamaica, nearly all of the surgeries were done by our visiting team members,” he said. “This year, eight of the 11 cases were done by the Dr. Sherard Little, the local Jamaican surgeon, with our help. The complexity of the cases has also changed. When we first went to Jamaica, we were doing less complex cases. Now the Jamaican surgeons are doing those cases independently.  So, when we go down each year, we can concentrate on the more complex cases. “

Jonathan Ellen, M.D., All Children’s Hospital President and Physician in Chief, and Vice Dean and Professor of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, also made the trip this year to meet with the President and Chairman of the Board of Bustamante Hospital and the Senior Medical Officer. He toured the facility and discussed a variety of future collaborative educational opportunities.

“We are focused on improving the health of children in the Tama Bay region and far beyond through excellence in clinical care, education and research,” said Dr. Ellen. “This ongoing effort is an example of our commitment to improve child health here and throughout the world.”

About All Children’s Hospital

All Children’s Hospital, a member of Johns Hopkins Medicine located in St. Petersburg, is the most advanced children’s hospital on Florida’s west coast and a U.S. News & World Report Best Children’s Hospital, ranking in the top 50 in three specialty areas. With over 50 pediatric specialties and 259 beds, All Children’s is dedicated to advancing children’s health through treatment, research, education and advocacy. Programs that include a Clinical and Translational Research Organization, pediatric biorepository and a new pediatric residency program are driving innovation in personalized pediatric medicine and child health. A network of 10 outpatient care centers in eight counties along with affiliate programs at regional hospitals makes All Children’s a leading provider of care for Florida’s children.