HONOLULU -- Five times a year, for one week each, cardiologists and cardiac surgeons from Tripler Army Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, Rady Children's Hospital of San Diego (Rady's), and Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children (Kapi'olani) collaborate in a 20-year tradition called Heartweek.
The group calls itself the Hawaii Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Committee (HPCSC).
All the cardiologists and cardiac surgeons work together to identify appropriate pediatric cardiac surgery candidates, and discuss viable treatment options for the patients.
TAMC members are pediatric cardiologists Col. Becket Mahnke, Lt. Col. Craig Dobson and Maj. Charles Nguyen.
Military patients and families
Heartweek patients, including those from TAMC, are treated at Kapi'olani by the HPCSC team of cardiologists and surgeons, which "allows military patients and families to get high quality care locally," states Mahnke. "For our military families getting care locally is very important. It removes some of the stress associated with cardiac surgery, allowing families to deal with these challenges at home with their normal support structure."
Maj. Charles Nguyen is also a cardiologist at TAMC. Although Nguyen has only been assigned to TAMC for a few months, he has already participated in his first Heartweek.
Nguyen was "honored and excited to be part of this worthy tradition."
"The families -- military, civilian and local -- no longer need to travel to the Mainland to receive the treatment you get during Heartweek," said Nguyen. "It really feels like you are part of the Hawaiian community with this program."
In a typical Heartweek, the team provides care to approximately 15-20 patients in Hawaii.
During the most recent Heartweek, two military patients benefited from the program.
The team performed an open-heart surgery and a pediatric interventional cardiac catheterization.
The most recent Heartweek took place Aug. 24-28th, which marked the program's 20th anniversary.
Recently, the group celebrated with Dr. John Lamberti, chief of cardiac surgery, Rady's, who initiated the Heartweek program with Dr. Carlos Moreno-Cabral, cardiac surgeon, Queens Medical Center.
They were joined by a large contingency of previous Heartweek patients and their family members, as well as Dr. John Moore, chief of cardiology, Rady's, and Dr. Jim Perry, chief of pediatric electrophysiology, Rady's; combining to join as one pediatric cardiology surgery family.
Social Sharing