A team of top medical and health professionals, on a mission to save lives from the devastating effects of heart disease, have set Fijian hearts pounding after completing their first day of life-saving cardiac surgery in Suva as part of the twelfth “Operation Open Heart” project.

Coordinated by Sydney Adventist Hospital in conjunction with the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), and in association with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, Operation Open Heart (OOH) provides urgently needed open-heart and cardiac surgery to Fijian Islanders and assists local doctors with diagnosis and treatment of heart disease patients.

This year’s 48-member team is comprised of specialized medical and health personnel including surgeons, anaesthetists, physiotherapists, intensive care and operating room nurses and technicians from across Australia and New Zealand who have donated their time, skills, expertise and money to offer life-saving surgery to Fijians in desperate need of cardiac surgery.

In a 14-day period, the team will perform nearly 30 cardiac operations, converting an ordinary operating room into a cardiac theater at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva. In past visits, the operations performed ranged from a pacemaker implant to an extremely complicated open-heart surgery on a newborn.

“We are on a mission to improve the prevention and treatment of heart disease in developing countries,” says Melanie Windus, Sydney Adventist Hospital’s Health Care Outreach Coordinator.

“Heart disease is one of the most common birth defects globally, affecting millions of children around the world. It is estimated that one-third of these children will die before their first birthday because of lack of appropriate care,” she adds.

“Through Operation Open Heart, we can make a difference,” Windus says.

And this is no mean feat. Thanks to Air Pacific, the team has flown in more than two tons of medical equipment and supplies needed to carry out the operations, including syringes, dressings, painkillers and an essential state-of-the-art heart and lung machine.

“This is a mammoth logistical effort,” notes Windus.

“Simple things Australian health practitioners take for granted, for example mild painkillers, had to be planned into our inventory and taken with the team. The majority of equipment and supplies are sourced from generous sponsors.”

Annette Baldwin, Sydney Adventist Hospital’s Nursing Executive Officer and former OOH Coordinator, is one of only two OOH volunteers who has been awarded the Order of Fiji for her efforts to help the Fijian people.

Dr. Alan Gale, a Sydney Adventist Hospital cardiac surgeon, is the other Order of Fiji recipient. Both Dr. Gale and Baldwin have been depicted on Fijian postage stamps in commemoration of their efforts over the years to save local lives.

“We’re proud to say that we have literally thousands of walking, running, laughing, playing, success stories all over the world,” says Baldwin.

“In addition to sending top flight medical teams to undertake complicated cardiac surgery, we take a long-term view to cardiac care, with a team conducting valuable on-site training which helps lay the foundation for long-term, locally based, self-sustaining care. There is no better feeling than making such a difference to someone’s life,” she says.

Through its Health Care Outreach program, Sydney Adventist Hospital partners with ADRA, AusAID and Rotary International to send teams of 30 to 40 specialist doctors and health professionals to perform open heart and cardiac surgery on children and adults in under-developed countries in Asia and the South Pacific up to three or four times per year. Heart surgery is performed in local hospitals on children and adults with rheumatic and congenital heart disease. Teams also undertake reconstructive surgery in Nepal on children and adults with cleft lip and/or palate deformities.