Charity group brings hope to children's hospital

Walking quickly along the corridors of Kingston's Bustamante Hospital for Children, Emma Scanlan could easily be mistaken for a resident doctor. She seemed to know everyone she spotted, and everyone she spotted seemed happy to see her.

"You're still here?" a nurse asked her.

"I'm always here," Scanlan laughed.

The truth is, Scanlan does spend a lot of her time at the hospital. She's chief executive at Chain of Hope (CoH), a charity organisation registered in the United Kingdom, which provides children around the world, who suffer from life-threatening heart disease, with corrective surgery and treatment they otherwise would not have been able to access.

CoH sends medical teams to treat children in their own country and sets up training programmes for local surgeons and medical staff. That training has made a world of difference at the Bustamante Hospital for Children which, before the intervention of CoH, often had to send patients overseas to receive cardiatric treatment.

Scanlan has been travelling frequently to Jamaica since 1996 when founder of CoH, world-renowned cardiothoracic surgeon, Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub, led the group's first mission to the island. This year has been particularly hectic.

"This is my fourth visit since the start of this year alone," she said.

Her increased number of visits over the past few months have been necessary, since CoH is moving to make even more permanent improvements at the hospital.

"One of our goals right now is to build a new ICU (Intensive Care Unit) with 10 beds, five dedicated for cardiac," she said.

CoH also wants to build a cardiac theatre and a cardiac catheter lab at the hospital. The goal is to have these up and running by 2012.

Expensive task

It's an expensive task. It costs roughly $13 million to set up an ICU bed with all the necessary life-preserving equipment. But with the continued support of other charity agencies, such as the Congenital Heart Institute of Florida, Caribbean Heart Menders, and Gift of Life Rotary, Scanlan is confident the goal will be met.

A local arm of the charity was set up in 2007. It's called Chain of Hope Jamaica and is based at the children's hospital. Paediatric cardiologist, Dr Charmaine Scott, is chairperson of the group.

"Chain of Hope has been amazing," she said. "Especially in the area of training. Having to send patients abroad was far more expensive. It was necessary, though, because the expertise to handle these cases was limited. With the training from Chain of Hope, things are much different now," she said.

If you would like to help Chainof Hope Jamaica, call 968-5336.