Video: Let's Get Started!

Watch the action unfold as we prepare the ICU for our first patients this weekend.

Posted by Leslie Sabatino, RN, clinical coordinator of Team Heart

Hi Everyone,

The first wave of folks has done a tremendous job cleaning and organizing things - Hats off to them!! The rest of the gang is heading in tomorrow, and we will be fully prepped and ready for a mock run through by Friday afternoon. I am so excited!!!

Before we begin, I want all of you reading this to know what hard work and very generous individuals we have on our team. They are the ultimate volunteers. From washing down walls, unpacking bags, carrying emergency supplies through many countries, or making sure to remind each other to take our Malaria meds daily, everyone is in this together and I am so proud of each and every Team Heart Member. It takes everyone single person on the team to make this a success.

It is so touching and emotional for me to have this dream becoming a reality. Words can not even explain it without tears of appreciation rolling down my face. Wait until you see the appreciation on the patients' faces.

Stay tuned...........................

Unpacking...

The ten team members already here spent the day at King Faisal Hospital unpacking equipment and cleaning the intensive care unit where our patients will receive care after surgery.

We continue the preparations tomorrow in anticipation of the first surgery, which begins on Saturday.

We Have Arrived

The first wave of Team Heart arrived safely in beautiful Kigali last night. Leslie, Ceeya, Jonnye, Sue G., Sue H., Jess, Bill, Diane and Liz (at left with Gene Bukhman of Partners In Health) are excited to be here and begin our work. Today we head to King Faisal Hospital to begin unpacking and preparing for the surgeries, which begin on Saturday.

The other 22 members of Team Heart are scheduled to arrive tomorrow evening.

Team Heart in the Boston Herald!

Pick up a copy of today's Boston Herald for a wonderful article on Team Heart featuring Chip Bolman and Leslie Sabatino.

Read the article online here.

Packing...

Chief of Cardiac Surgery Ralph Morton "Chip" Bolman, III, MD, and Leslie Sabatino, RN, packed medical supplies on Friday. Team Heart has received over a half million dollars worth of donated medical supplies to perform heart surgery in Rwanda.

Posted by Ceeya Patton-Bolman, program coordinator for Team Heart

As I sit here, determined to complete the thank you notes before the "unpacking team" leaves on Monday, I cannot help reflecting on those whom have made this trip possible. Help has come not only from predictable sources, vendors we work with and respect and feel "we must have _____ to do this safely, hospital personnel have gone beyond our wildest hopes to make contacts for donations or broker great prices to provide what we need, but help has come in smaller donations, used cell phones (we continue to collect!!!) and more importantly from words of encouragement and the hope for success.

It has continued to amaze and warm my heart how the Brigham community has embraced this project. Chip and I came to the Brigham from the outside and the environment initially did not seem a welcoming one. A hard move, late in life, without children to introduce us to parents of their friends, at times we both despaired of ever being a part of the community. It has been incredible to me to see how the community of volunteers, nurses and physicians have supported each other and made a place for us too! Although we are not doing this trip for team building, it has been one of the most wonderful "side effects". Getting to know the team which embraces many more individuals than those traveling to Kigali has been wonderful.

Thank you to each of our supporters, we take a piece of you with us.

Welcome

Welcome to the official blog of Team Heart, a group of 32 volunteers from Brigham and Women's Hospital. In just two weeks, the team will head to Kigali, Rwanda, to begin a decade-long cardiac surgery mission to King Faisal Hospital.

During the inaugural visit this April, our team will perform life-saving heart surgery on Rwandan patients, most of whom suffer from rheumatic heart disease. Over the course of the next decade, we will work with staff at King Faisal Hospital and the Rwandan Ministry of Health to establish a self-sustained cardiac surgery program there.

It is an honor and a privilege for our team to be able to do this important work with our colleagues in Rwanda.

This blog will be updated frequently with photos, videos and posts during the first two weeks of April as Team Heart begins performing surgery in Rwanda. Stay tuned...