For 20 years, Dr Jeffery Jacobs has visited Jamaica to do life-saving work. As a cardiologist, co-founder, and president of Cardiac Kids of Florida, he has led 16 missions to mend little hearts. The missions of Cardiac Kids of Florida, in collaboration with Chain of Hope Jamaica and Bustamante Hospital for Children, have directly benefited more than 160 children from across the country.

Cardiac Kids Foundation of Florida’s recent celebration of the 20th anniversary of the foundation’s work at Bustamante Hospital for Children (BHC) provided the perfect opportunity for Dr Jacobs to reconnect with some of those whose lives he has saved over the last two decades.

“It’s emotional for me to see these children, some of whom had surgeries 18 or 19 years ago. Now they are in college, studying to be nurses, and starting their own families; it’s absolutely, positively, just miraculous,” said Dr Jacobs, who is a paediatric heart surgeon and professor of surgery and paediatrics at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

The February 13 celebration took the form of a garden reception, hosted at the medical facility, under the theme ‘Building a Legacy: 20 Years of Partnership, Progress and Heart’. The day of activities included a paint and sip session with 20 present and past surgery recipients. There, surgeons and returning staff were able to see and interact with the children (and the now-adults) on whom they had operated throughout the two decades. The work continues and during the week of February 9 to 13, Dr Jacobs and his team of more than 60 overseas volunteers worked with BHC’s team to perform 13 surgeries on children with life-threatening heart problems. The team consisted of surgeons, cardiologists, anaesthesiologists, intensive care doctors, many nurses, perfusionists (who run the heart-lung/bypass machine), and 10 student doctors.

“When we leave there’ll be 13 children with fixed hearts and we expect that [within a week] they’ll be home, happy and healthy,” Dr Jacobs explained.

Among the team’s surgeons is Dr Vinay Badhwar, president of Society of Thoracic Surgeons, who has been doing missions with foundation in Jamaica since 2010. His work focuses on complex heart valve repair surgeries in children with rheumatic heart disease or complications from rheumatic fever. He explained that the mission’s singular goal is to give the children an opportunity they might not have had, without surgery.

“These children have very complex hearts. If you can rebuild a valve, you can rebuild a heart; and if you rebuild the heart, you sustain or rebuild a life. These children are now grown up, are doing well, and it’s great to see,” he said.

At the reception Dr Badhwar met with Daniel Faskin, on whom he operated in 2014. Faskin is now a certified chef, running his own business.

Dr Jacobs explained that the most important part of the team’s time is collaborating with local Jamaican doctors and nurses.

“The programme is now the largest self-sustaining paediatric heart programme in the entire Caribbean, and should be a significant point of pride for Jamaica,” Dr Jacobs beamed.

“The doctors and nurses who currently run the cardiac programme at Bustamante were residents or in training when we started here 20 years ago. I must acknowledge the best paediatric heart surgeon in the entire Caribbean, Dr Sherard Little, as a treasured and valued resource to Jamaica,” he added.

The infrastructural progress is also evident, as in the first years of the missions the complex cardiac surgeries were led by Dr Jacob’s volunteer surgical teams at the Kingston Public Hospital and at the UHWI. Since 2019, however, the operations have been performed at the Caribbean’s first state-of-the-art Paediatric Cardiac Centre at the BHC and led by the Jamaican cardiothoracic, cardiology, anaesthesiologists and other critical clinical teams.

“Part of the progress is seeing the sustainability of Bustamante Hospital’s cardiac programme,” Dr Badhwar explained. “We have experts here now — expert surgeons, perfusionists, and nurses — so when we [the overseas mission] come, we see the fruits of labour from years past and enjoy watching the excellence that’s being delivered.”

During the recent celebration hosted at BHC, among the attendees was board chair of Chain of Hope Jamaica Diane Edwards, who brought greetings. Also at the event were integral members to the formation of the cardiac programme, such as former Minister of Health Dr Fenton Ferguson; former Chairman of the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA) Lyttleton “Tanny” Shirley; former head of BHC Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Dr Lambert Innis; Dr Roger Irvine, cardiac surgeon; Dr Sonia Thomas, retired senior medical officer of the hospital; BHC CEO Anthony Wood; the current senior medical officer, Dr Michelle Richards-Dawson; medical representatives from Johns Hopkins University and Edward Life Sciences; clinicians from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Texas Children’s Hospital; as well as several other sponsors and donors. Daniel Newlin, an American attorney, entrepreneur, and serving United States ambassador to Colombia, attended the celebratory event in Jamaica as a principal donor and supporter of this outreach programme.

Having received life-saving cardiac surgeries from Cardiac Kids of Florida, young recipients deliver a special ‘thank you’ to their caregivers and doctors during the 20th anniversary of the Cardiac Kids of Florida Foundation, at the Bustamante Hospital on Friday, February 13, 2026.