The Babyheart medical mission trip to Santiago, Dominican Republic from November 8-22, 2014 resulted in 15 children receiving lifesaving heart surgeries. The mission was led by Dr. Rodrigo Soto and included volunteers from 5 countries who worked with the local medical team. Key patients included Franchesca, an 8-month old girl who received surgery for a rare heart defect, and Frankely, a 15-year old boy from Haiti who received a new heart valve. The team provided surgeries and training to the local medical professionals to establish a sustainable pediatric heart program.

1. HEALING THE WORLD WITH EACH HEARTBEAT
32nd Mission to Santiago, Dominican Republic
Babyheart Medical Mission Trip Report
November 8th-22th, 2014
Special Thanks to
CHADASHA
ProVision Trust
Haiti Cardiac Alliance
Fundación Corazones del Cibao
Hospital Infantil Regional Universitario Dr. Arturo Grullon
Volume 22
Issue 32
heartbeat
the

2. ICHF Mission Statement
What is Congenital Heart Disease (CHD)?
32nd Mission to Santiago
Babyheart Patients
Meet Franchesca!
Meet Frankely!
Kindhearted Medical Volunteers
Meet Dr. Rodrigo Soto
Training & Education
Heartfelt Thank You
2015 Mission Schedule
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Table of Contents

3. Many of these children in developing nations will never see their first birthday
because of congenital heart disease. Since the resources to treat and cure
congenital heart disease are not readily available in these regions, the parents
of these children are often powerless to save them.
The mission of the International Children’s Heart Foundation (ICHF) is to bring the
skills, technology, and knowledge to cure and care for children with congenital
heart disease to developing nations. ICHF does this regardless of country of
origin, race, religion or gender. Our goal is to make the need for ICHF obsolete.
We work toward this goal through our medical mission trips, where we operate
on children and educate local healthcare professionals.
In operation since 1993, ICHF assembles volunteer medical teams from around the
world to provide free pediatric cardiac surgeries, training and medical resources
to countries without access to them. We implement our collaborative teaching
curriculum by operating with and educating local healthcare professionals in
their own hospitals. With this training, the local teams gradually acquire the
skills to care for their children independently.
So far, ICHF’s medical teams have performed 7,482 operations in 32 countries
around the globe. As a 501(c)3 charitable organization, we enlist your support
to provide hope and life for children throughout the developing world.
If you share our same passion for saving children with congenital heart disease,
we encourage you to join us as a medical volunteer or a donor.
Together, we can continue to save thousands of lives!
Approximately 1 in every 100 children will be born with a heart defect.
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ICHF Mission Statement

4. What is congenital heart disease (CHD)? CHD is the general, collective term applied
to children who are born with a structural defect of the heart.
CHD occurs when the heart or the blood vessels connected to it do not grow normally
prior to birth. The structural defect may occur in the heart’s valves, walls, main
blood vessels, or any combination of these.
The number of new cases annually of CHD is relatively constant in all countries of
the world and is approximately 1 in 100 live births.
What causes CHD? The exact cause of CHD is unknown; however, there are factors
that often correlate to the creation of these defects. Some defects may be hereditary
and transmit from one generation to the next through genes. CHD can also be linked
to chromosomal abnormalities, syndromes, maternal illnesses, or even medications
taken during pregnancy.
What is the mortality rate for CHD? Overall, congenital anomalies are second only to
prematurity and low birth weight as a cause of neonatal mortality (children under
30 days old.) Among congenital anomalies, cardiac defects are the leading cause of
neonatal death.
What are the symptoms? CHD may manifest itself in numerous ways. Heart murmurs,
difficulty eating, lack of strength, stunted growth and rapid, labored breathing are
among the most common. Cyanosis, or blue-tinted skin, is also a symptom of CHD in
newborns and indicates a shortage of oxygenated blood circulating throughout the
body.
What treatment is available for children with CHD? Some congenital heart defects
can be treated effectively with medications, but many children require surgery as
a primary form of treatment. In order to properly cure the patient, a doctor must
be able to diagnose the disease. Once a diagnosis has been made, treatment of the
defect may include open heart surgery. Consequently, treatment of these defects
involves a considerable amount of equipment and skill. Many developing countries
lack access to the essential tools and knowledge needed to save these children.
Jonas, Richard A. 2014. Comprehensive Surgical Management of Congenital Heart
Disease, 2nd ed.
What is Congenital Heart Disease?
50% of children born with heart defects will need heart surgery at
sometime in their life.
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5. Our 32nd Babyheart medical mission trip to Santiago, Dominican Republic
was completed on November 22nd, 2014 at the Hospital Infantil Regional
Universitario Dr. Arturo Grullon (Children’s Hospital of Santiago), where 15
children with congenital heart defects received lifesaving surgeries.
The Dominican Republic is located in the El Cibao region of the Hispaniola
Island. The country has an infant mortality rate of 21.3 deaths per 1000 births,
and congenital heart disease is the 4th leading cause of death.
Dr. Juan Ramirez invited the Babyheart medical team to visit the hospital in
2006, and we have since provided 498 heart surgeries to children at no cost
to the patients’ families!
The Babyheart team was led by cardiovascular surgeon Dr. Rodrigo Soto and
consistedofacardiologist,aperfusionist,threeintensivists,ananesthesiologist,
an interventional cardiologist, four PICU nurses, a biomedical engineer, and
two medical students.
The team of volunteers united in the Dominican Republic from 5 different
countries, all joining together for 1 extraordinary cause:
32nd Mission to SantiagoNovember 8-22, 2014
to save the lives of children with congenital heart defects!
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Hospital Infantil Regional
Universitario Dr. Arturo Grullon
Santiago,
Dominican Republic

6. Abdiela Batista
2 years old
VSD & PFO Closures, PDA Ligation
Jean Lindor
11 years old
Mitral Valve Replacement
José Puello
21 months old
AP Window Repair, ASD & VSD Closures
Laury Vidal
20 years old
TOF Repair
Miranda Sanchez
2 years old
TOF Repair
Yovanna Genao
6 months old
TAPVR Repair
Marianny Vargas
4 years old
ASD Closure
Ricardo Mendoza
10 years old
ASD Closure
Sebastian Figueroa
2 months old
Hemitruncus Repair
Frank Ramirez
6 years old
TOF Repair
Jensley Henry
1 year old
VSD Closure, PDA Ligation
Franchesca Marte
9 months old
ALCAPA Repair
Frankely Auguste
15 years old
Mitral Valve Replacement
Elido Rondon
5 years old
TOF Repair
Mitcheny Lius
13 years old
Mitral Valve Replacement
Babyheart Patients
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7. Franchesca is an adorable 8-month-old girl whose
mother took her to the doctor’s office for a simple
cold in October of 2014. The doctors took an x-ray
of her chest and discovered that she had an enlarged
heart. She was referred to Dr. Ramirez, a pediatric
cardiologist in Santiago, Dominican Republic. He
performed an echocardiogram on Franchesca and
diagnosed her with an anomalous left coronary artery
arising from the pulmonary artery (ALCAPA). In a
normally developed heart, the left coronary artery
originates from the aorta and delivers oxygenated
blood to the heart muscle itself. In Franchesca’s case, her left coronary artery was
delivering non-oxygenated blood to her heart muscle instead. If left unrepaired,
this anomaly will cause irreversible damage to the heart. Due to the late diagnosis
of her defect, her heart was extremely weak - so weak that it could have stopped
functioning at any time.
Fortunately for Franchesca, the Babyheart medical team was scheduled to be in
Santiago the following month. Upon the team’s arrival, she was evaluated and was
immediately booked for surgery the first week. While an ALCAPA repair may not be
the most difficult surgery to perform, ICHF surgeon Dr. Soto stated that this was the
“riskiest surgery we did the entire trip, because her heart was so weak.” Anytime the
heart is weak, there is always a greater risk associated with it functioning properly
after being on bypass.
Thankfully for Franchesca, she did great! Her surgery went well, and her heart
was strong enough to pump on its own after bypass. She did not have any major
complications during surgery and her recovery in
the ICU was swift. In fact, she was able to leave the
ICU only three days after her open-heart surgery!
Before the Babyheart team departed from Santiago,
Franchesca was already at home with her family.
Her family felt so blessed that ICHF was able to come
to Santiago so quickly after her baby’s diagnosis. This
was a scary time for her mother and her entire family,
but they are very thankful and grateful to everyone
who helped save her baby girl!
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Meet Franchesca!

8. Frankely is a 15-year-old boy from Cabaret, Haiti who
suffered from severe mitral valve regurgitation, secondary
to rheumatic fever. Rheumatic fever causes direct damage
to the leaflets of the heart valves and is a common childhood
disease in developing countries, where antibiotic treatment
is not easily accessible for certain infectious diseases, such
as those that cause rheumatic fever.
In January of 2014, Frankely’s mother began noticing that
his stomach was large, and his legs and feet were swollen.
She made contact with CHADASHA, which is known in the
Haitian community as being a link to organizations that
treat heart disease. Haiti Cardiac Alliance partners with
CHADASHA and ICHF to provide diagnosis, screening, medical management, and surgical
scheduling to Haitian children suffering from heart disease.
Together, they were able to get Frankely into a screening clinic in Port Au Prince where
he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure due to his incompetent valve. After
two centers in the US turned him down, Haiti Cardiac Alliance brought Frankely to an
ICHF/CHADASHA medical mission trip in Jimani, Dominican Republic in July of 2014. It
was there that Frankely almost lost his fight altogether. He developed pneumonia prior
to the trip, and when he arrived to Jimani, he was immediately hospitalized in the ICU.
He had many “touch and go” nights, but he pulled through and eventually recovered
enough to go back to Haiti and hope for another opportunity for life-saving surgery. He
got that chance on this ICHF medical mission trip to Santiago. Frankely and his mother
made the 10-hour journey from Porta Au Prince, Haiti to Santiago, Dominican Republic,
while his two older siblings stayed behind, hoping for the best.
On November 14, Frankely received his life-saving surgery! The local surgeon in Santiago,
assisted by ICHF volunteer surgeon Dr. Absi, replaced Frankely’s mitral valve with a
mechanical St. Jude valve. His surgery was uncomplicated, and he recovered quickly in
the ICU. He was back to drawing cartoons and making designs the next day.
With his new valve, Frankely will need to take a medication called Warfarin (Coumadin)
for the rest of his life. Warfarin prevents blood clots
from forming around the valve. Thanks to Haiti Cardiac
Alliance, Frankely has a portable INR machine he uses to
monitor his blood levels, and he has a nurse in Haiti that
follows up with him every 2-3 weeks.
Frankely is a great example of the partnership between
these three NGO’s and the heroic efforts that go into
making sure these children receive the care they need.
ICHF is proud to have CHADASHA and Haiti Cardiac
Alliance partnering with us in Haiti!
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Meet Frankely!

9. 8
LEAD SURGEON
Rodrigo Soto
Chile
INTERVENTIONAL CARDIOLOGIST
Damien Kenny
United States
ANESTHESIOLOGIST
Vancho Jovanov
Macedonia
PICU NURSE
Claire Sorensen
United States
PICU NURSE
Andrea Maurich
Canada
INTENSIVIST
Mohammad Hamzah
United States
STUDENT VOLUNTEER
Kelby Wegner
United States
SURGEON
Daniel Absi
Argentina
PERFUSIONIST
Christopher Yann
United States
PICU NURSE
Suk Lo
Canada
PICU NURSE
Gricel Pereira
Chile
INTENSIVIST
Swati Agarwal
United States
INTENSIVIST
Juan Boriosi
United States
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEER
Roy Morris
United States
Kindhearted Medical Volunteers

10. 9
Dr. Rodrigo Soto
CEO, Clinical Operations
As the new CEO of Clinical Operations for
InternationalChildren’sHeartFoundation,
Dr. Rodrigo Soto is passionately committed
to our mission of providing free pediatric
cardiac surgeries to children around
the world, while also empowering local
medical professionals with training and
medical resources.
A seasoned pediatric cardiac surgeon, Dr.
Soto supervises all of our clinical operations, including our compliance to the global
regulations, standards and statutes required for developing cardiac care programs in
emerging nations. Additionally, Dr. Soto diligently works to expand the foundation’s
reach by recruiting qualified medical volunteers, developing new global partnerships
and fortifying existing worldwide alliances with sponsors, health care institutions
and likeminded organizations.
Prior to his current position as CEO, Dr. Soto has dedicated his time, passion and
expertise to ICHF for over a decade, serving as a volunteer pediatric cardiac
surgeon from 2002 to 2012, before transitioning to staff surgeon in early 2013.
Before teaming with ICHF, Dr. Soto worked as staff pediatric cardiac surgeon at
Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia from 2001 to 2003, and he was
the pediatric cardiac surgery unit director and ECMO program director from 2004 to
2012 at Clínica Alemana in Santiago, Chile.
Dr. Soto received his MBBS degree from the University of Chile School of Medicine
in 1990 and completed residencies in general and cardiac surgery at Luis Calvo
Mackenna Children’s Hospital in Santiago, Chile, followed by fellowships at the Royal
Children’s Hospital, and the Pediatric Cardiac Unit at Hôpital Marie Lannelongue in
Paris, France.

11. The International Children’s Heart Foundation assembles volunteer medical
teams from around the world to provide free pediatric cardiac surgeries, training
and medical resources to countries that do not have access to them. We strive to
build sustainable pediatric cardiac programs by operating with and educating local
healthcare professionals in their own hospitals. We use a variety of educational
models, including formal lectures, simulation and clinical teaching. Babyheart also
assists with medication and equipment as needed and can provide resources to help
with organizational change in the centers that we teach.
With the training and knowledge that we provide, the local teams progressively
acquire the skills necessary to cure and care for their children independently.
Training & Education
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12. 11
Heartfelt Thank You!
Special Thanks to
Babyheart sincerely thanks you for your support! Your
generosity allowed us to provide free pediatric cardiac
operations to 15 children with congenital heart disease
during this trip. You also helped make it possible for us to
give priceless knowledge and training to the local medical
team in Santiago, which will aid and fortify them during
their progression into a self-sustaining, lifesaving program.
Thanks to your kindhearted help, we are able to continue
our mission of curing and caring for children with cardiac
defects all over the world!

13. INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S HEART FOUNDATION
80 MONROE AVENUE, SUITE G1 • MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE 38103
WWW.BABYHEART.ORG • PHONE: 877.869.4243 • FAX: 901.432.4243
2015
Mission Schedule
February 28-March 14: Guayaquil, Ecuador
March 14-22: Santiago, Dominican Republic
April 11-18: Asuncion, Paraguay
April 25-May 9: Guayaquil, Ecuador
May 9-June 23: Santiago, Dominican Republic
June 20-July 4: Guayaquil, Ecuador
August 1-8: Asuncion, Paraguay
August 15-29: Guayaquil, Ecuador
August 22-Sept 5: Santiago, Dominican Republic
September 5-19: Mirebalais, Haiti
October 3-17: Guayaquil, Ecuador
November 7-21: Santiago, Dominican Republic
December 5-19: Guayaquil, Ecuador