| About Us |
MissionUsing a global network of volunteer effort, and the collective skills of experts in healthcare, CardioStart International provides free heart surgery and associated medical care to children and adults living in underserved regions of the world, irrespective of political position or religious creed. VisionCardioStart International aspires to provide greater hope and support to families with children & adults afflicted with heart disease in the underserved regions of the world by….
CardioStart is about innovationInternational healthcare volunteers come from all over the world to collaborate and help as one team:
How it all began...The unofficial motivation to start an international heart assistance program began in 1984, in the UK, with the somber realization that only a handful of people from underdeveloped countries would ever be operated on in established centers in the “developed” world. It was like a lottery. Private clinics or hospital wings devoted to paying patients, did change individual lives, but the motives were, essentially, a business arrangement where little reached the ordinary population in need. Surgeons in the underserved countries eventually seized a bold opportunity – to attempt to build their own centers of excellence. In response to this enterprise, CardioStart was born. Together with volunteer physicians volunteer nurses, over two decades, teams have been assembled that effectively introduce the surgical discipline, help evolve surgical after-care management, and assist refinement of procedures that can bring about new specialties to hospitals struggling to survive. This act in itself has been the catalyst which has given hospitals recognition for their achievements and a firm basis to lobby their governments and regional health authorities for better financial support. The substantial material donations ease their budget crisis by providing essential hospital medical equipment that is, financially, beyond their reach. One or more shipping containers usually accompany each CardioStart visit. CardioStart operational activities are coordinated by our International Management Committee (IMC) which include doctors, nurses and non-medical professionals from the USA and Great Britain. Its executive functions and medical standards are governed by the Board of Trustees, who come from various walks of life, representing several different professions. They meet regularly to tightly control our conduct in preserving the integrity of the charity’s vision and purpose.
Message from Board of Trustees
In fact, the first use of our renovated ICU was to recover pediatric patients from open heart surgeries performed by the CardioStart doctors and clinicians who worked in close association with the Haitian doctors, clinicians, and nursing staff. I have never seen a more dedicated and professional staff of medical personnel perform so many miracles under such difficult circumstances. Not only did the CardioStart volunteers provide excellent medical care and assistance, they spent much of their time and effort teaching the Haitian staff new clinical and nursing skills, interacting with Haitian families and children, distributing much needed clinical supplies and equipment, providing uplifting care to an orphanage, and above all bringing to this dire and forlorn land something that had not been there before…a sense of hope. To be lucky enough to be associated with such a positive and giving group of professionals was a life changing experience that I will always cherish. During the past 10 years, I have tried to serve this organization to help insure this good work may continue to bring care to those who are forgotten, healing to those who are sick, and hope to children around the world who have lost all hope. Skip Gregory, NCARB CardioStart is primarily dedicated to assisting children and adults with heart disease and is truly an international humanitarian organization. It is fully registered in the United States as a 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit entity, and is supported by chapters in several locations in the USA. It is separately registered under charity law in Canada and the United Kingdom. CardioStart is also separately registered and affiliated with the World Heart Foundation. CardioStart Board of Trustees
International Management Committee Members
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I first became involved with CardioStart several years ago while I was assisting in a project by the state of Florida to rebuild part of the hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. As a registered architect and the Bureau Chief of a state office that reviews and approves all of the health care design and construction in Florida, I was asked by the Governor to lead a team of architects and engineers to Haiti to determine if there was something that could be done to improve their health care delivery system. Over the course of several years, we were able to rebuild the ICU and the Emergency Department at the hospital. During that time, I met Dr. Marath and the CardioStart volunteers.