In July 2024, Heart to Heart conducted a highly focused training mission at the National Children’s Hospital (HNN), specifically to re-evaluate the patients on HNN’s cardiac surgical waiting list, which had ballooned to more than 100 children. Optimizing patient selection is the second of our Four Pathways framework for developing HNN’s children’s heart program.

In September 2023, Heart to Heart conducted our first-ever adult cardiac training mission to San Jose, Costa Rica. This momentous occasion came as a result of an initial invitation to San Juan de Dios Hospital (HSJD) in 2019 from chief of cardiac surgery, Klaus Kuhn, MD. HSJD is one of three public cardiac centers which serve Costa Rican adults with heart disease.

We are so excited to shine a spotlight this Doctor’s Day on all of the dedicated physicians who make Heart to Heart’s work possible! For more than 30 years, we have had the great privilege of working with doctors who hail from a variety of renowned cardiac centers across the United States and hold a wealth of knowledge in their respective subspecialties.

Heart to Heart’s goal is to support teams at existing heart centers in Costa Rica in order to build their capacity so that every adult and child in the country can have timely access to life-saving cardiac care provided by local physicians, nurses, and technicians.

This World Humanitarian Day, we are delighted to highlight Kavitha Pundi, MD, a dedicated Heart to Heart medical volunteer and Associate Professor of Pediatric Cardiology at University of California, San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospital. Dr. Pundi is motivated by a deep desire to create sustainable change and lasting impact by expanding access to life-saving cardiac care globally.

We are excited to share with you our program report covering our first two on-the-ground cardiac training missions in Costa Rica! We invite you to take a look at this report to learn more about how your generosity can directly impact children born with congenital heart defects, now and for generations to come.