JAMAICA continues to make great strides in the treatment of heart disease — the number one cause of death in the Caribbean — as a team from University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) cardiac suite successfully performed the first successful minimally invasive heart valve procedure in adults on the island.

According to Dr Tahira Redwood, the first Caribbean doctor to be university-trained in both structural and adult congenital heart interventions, in Jamaica treatment of cholesterol build up in the blood vessels, heart attacks, angina, and slow heart beats have been ongoing.

She added that “holes in the heart and heart valve diseases are very common” and as a result, persons can develop heart failure, fainting, lung problems and strokes, if left untreated.

Further, Dr Redwood said while access to care has improved significantly in the last decade, exorbitant costs overseas, costly or high-risk surgery, and other factors have prevented people from accessing cardiac care.

However, Dr Redwood noted that with a state-of-the-art cardiac suite at UHWI and Bustamante Childrens’ Hospital, a myriad of conditions to include heart valve disease, holes in the heart (ASD/PFO), rheumatic heart disease (RHD) can now be treated without surgery.

Where surgery is needed, she said patients no longer have to overcome significant financial strains of arranging to get these procedures abroad as Jamaica can now fix these heart diseases at a fraction of the cost available in North America.

Dr Redwood added: “We have an expert team including physicians, nurses, radiographers. Myself and many of the team members trained in one of the top five heart programmes in North America and the UHWI cardiac suite is as equivalent to any we have worked in. I am happy to be able to be a part of the initiation and growth of this new programme. We are able to provide much-needed health care at a fraction of the cost and of equivalent quality as if someone was going overseas. This programme is a major milestone for not only Jamaica but the entire Caribbean.”

In the meantime, Dr Redwood said the initiation of a structural and congenital heart programme is significant in Jamaica as many of the procedures that will be done have been done around the world for decades.

“These procedures avoid patients having to ‘crack open’ the breast bone and having open-heart surgery. These minimally invasive techniques allow many patients to go home either the same day, or within a few days of their procedure. Avoiding the cost and morbidity of an prolonged ICU/hospital stay and, of course, no big scar on the chest.”

The team of experts who performed the surgery included Drs Redwood, Racquel Gordon, Lisa Hurlock, O Metalor and an experienced team of nurses and radiographers.

The grateful patient was able to go home the same day.

Another first was the closure of an adult PDA (patent ductus arteriosus), an abnormal connection between two large blood vessels (in the chest). This procedure was also successful and the patient was also able to go home on the same day after the procedure.

“Doc, we dun already? Mi neva feel a ting. Lawd mi happy to be going home the same day as I was told it was a big surgery to cut mi chest and I would have to stay in hospital fi weeks if mi doctor never send me to you. Mi feel good,” the patient said.

A number of similar diseases have been successfully treated in Jamaica over the past year.

Meanwhile, medical chief of staff at UHWI Dr Carl Bruce said as we evolve with technologies in medicine, the University Hospital has a responsibility to deliver improved care to our patients with enhanced recovery.

“Minimal access approaches and the investments made in the interventional suite underlines my strategy to reposition patient care to world-class levels regionally,” he said.