Into the Heartland Campaign, 2002-2019
Into the Russian Heartland: Self-sustaining Children's Heart Programs
In the 20th century, while medical breakthroughs were benefiting children in the United States, Soviet physicians—isolated from major advances in cardiac surgery being made in the West—remained unable to treat Russian children born with heart defects.
Every year in the Russian Federation, over 19,000 babies are born with congenital heart defects (CHD). Half of these children need surgery to survive. Before Heart to Heart launched its educational collaborations in Russia, the majority of children born with heart defects went undiagnosed or untreated. Sadly, thousands of children died of treatable CHD.
MISSION To give every baby and child in Russia access to life-saving heart care by developing a network of six self-sustaining pediatric cardiac centers of excellence throughout the heartland of the Russian Federation.
In 1989, Heart to Heart knew we could make a real difference to tens of thousands of children and their families. Our medical volunteers began developing self-sustaining pediatric heart centers throughout Russia to ensure that all children, regardless of where in the country they were living, or what kind of heart defect they were born with, could undergo timely surgery.
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Russian Pediatric Cardiac Care Today: A Success Story
The Russian Federation is vast: it spans 11 time zones, and is home to a population of 144 million. Heart to Heart has played an instrumental role in advancing cardiac medicine throughout the country. Our success in developing six self-sustaining regional pediatric cardiac centers in Russia’s most populous federal districts confirms that, in a relatively short period of time, life-saving heart care can be made accessible to millions of families in a cost-effective and replicable manner.
There is no longer a backlog of children with CHD waiting for life-saving heart surgery in Russia! At centers where Heart to Heart has worked to build capacity, new pediatric cardiac teams have already treated all the children on their regions’ waiting list. As soon as babies are born with CHD, they are diagnosed and treated in a timely manner. This is a major accomplishment!
Global Impact—in and beyond Russia
Now that we have completed our Into the Heartland Campaign, six pediatric heart centers in major metropolitan areas throughout Russia are completely self-sustaining. We have helped to train Russia’s first generation of pediatric cardiac specialists—including current and future national leaders. The legacy of our pioneering work continues to save thousands of children’s lives each year.
Specialists trained by Heart to Heart have saved more than 35,000 children, and will continue to save the lives of more than 2,000 children each year in perpetuity. Heart to Heart has helped establish a nationwide system for delivering heart care to all children in the world’s largest country.
We are taking our program model and highly skilled volunteers to other parts of the globe—bringing hope and healing to families of children waiting for life-saving heart surgery.