Team Heart Rwanda

MISSION: To help King Faisal Hospital in Kigali, Rwanda, set up a self-sustaining cardiac surgery program to serve the thousands of Rwandans desperately in need of life-saving heart surgery. DESCRIPTION: Team Heart Rwanda is a group of 40 physicians, nurses and other medical professionals who volunteer their time for surgical missions to Rwanda. Team Heart is under the umbrella of Brigham & Women’s Hospital. Team Heart works in partnership with Partners in Health, Boston and Rwanda, and Operation Open Heart, a sister team of Australian medical professionals who visit Rwanda each October for follow-up treatment after the surgical missions are complete. IMPACT: Rwanda has only 400 doctors and fewer than 4,000 nurses to serve nearly 10,000,000 people. The life expectancy in Rwanda is currently 44 years due to preventable illnesses including heart disease, malaria and infectious diseases. Team Heart plans to perform surgery on 15 young Rwandan patients from across the country who are suffering from rheumatic heart disease and are in desperate need of cardiac surgery.