- Strong Heartbeats for Life
The services provided by the Cuban Cardiopediatric Network stand out for the multidisciplinary and comprehensive work, since their praiseworthy results are the best warranty of survival and quality of life for patients suffering from congenital cardiopathies
The reach of Cuban cardiopediatric services goes beyond the island nation’s borders and over a thousand people from 40 countries have been treated. They have benefited from the introduction and development of different and new techniques that assure success in more than 90 percent of cases, not only in children but also in adult patients.
Havana-based William Soler Pediatric Cardiocenter borne out by over three decades of excellent services, so it is a national benchmark entity in terms of cardiology and pediatric cardiovascular surgery.
That reality is buttressed by figures, according to Dr. Eugenio Selman Housein Sosa, director of that institution, who detailed that infant mortality rate back in 1982 was 14 per each thousand newborns, 3 of which were related to congenital cardiopathies. Nowadays, when that indicator has fallen under 4, the mortality rate for this condition is barely 0.31.
The doctor recalled that, since its foundation back in August 1986, by the Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, who was interested in children`s health, over 10 thousand cardiovascular operations have taken place in the Center, with survival rates above 92 percent, so it is possible to say that the children who were born with cardiopathies in Cuba and have become adults that follow different treatments, presently stand for a bigger number than the pediatric population that suffers from heart conditions.
The country boasts about having a team of highly-trained doctors and professionals, who can adopt and apply any new technology in the pediatric cardiovascular surgery field, backed up by over 30 years of experience and a level similar to first-world countries in Europe or North America.
Moreover, Dr. Selman mentioned the entity’s leading programs, such as interventionist catheterization in congenital cardiopathies, congenital cardiopathies in adults, open and closed heart surgery.
Havana-based Cardiocenter’s engulfs an array of products and services that, according to Dr. Eutivides Aguilera Sanchez (head of International Medical Care), although most of them are focused on the pediatric area, comprise cardiologic care for any age bracket, like congenital cardiopaths that have become adults.
The doctor also highlighted other outstanding programs: complex and non-complex open-heart surgery and closed-heart surgery, hemodynamics that basically have interventionist catheterization, the arrhythmia and pacemaker program, as well as the assessment and long-term follow-up of those congenital cardiopaths that have undergone treatment.
These strengths justify so many recognitions to the work of this institution, which is supported by the efficient organization of the Healthcare System in Cuba, its universal character and integrity, thus facilitating that most of these patients can be monitored by the cardiopediatric rehabilitation program.
This service has been provided for over 25 years and 90 percent of the people it has treated have an active school or work life, 95 percent have satisfactorily developed a social and family life, including several hundreds of female patients that have given birth to their children (99 of those pregnancies have been successful).
The Centers applies new procedures, in a medical area that turns out to be inefficient in other regions of the world, which guarantee less risks and complications for patients, higher survival rates (92 percent) and shorter hospital stay. As for patients working overseas, they can have access to these services by contacting Comercializadora de Servicios Médicos Cubanos S.A.