Healing Hearts Northwest was established following a fact-finding trip in 2008 with UJAMAA and a meeting with Dr. Joseph Mucumbitisi at King Faisal Hospital. A second trip by Dr. Hal Goldberg in April 2009 was made to observe the work of a team from Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital participating in the same program. Dr. Hal Goldberg then led Healing Hearts Northwest- comprised of physicians, nurses, and medical technicians, biomedical engineer and a pharmacist- on the medical mission to the capitol city of Kigali. The team, along with Rwandan doctors and nurses from Kigali’s modern medical facility of King  Faisal Hospital, successfully completed 16 open-heart surgeries that included  14 valve replacements and repairs, repair of congenital heart defects and four  pacemaker placements.

Our goals for Healing Hearts Northwest are:

• Providing open heart surgery in countries where these services are currently unavailable
• Teaching general cardiac care and treatment for cardiac emergencies
• Encouraging participation of nurses in post operative cardiac care to enhance intensive care skills
• Teaching pacemaker implantation and pacemaker follow up