Boston heart team blogs about treating children in Ghana

A cardiac team from Boston saw this sign when they arrived at a hospital in Ghana last week:

"Free pediatric cardiac surgeries!! In conjunction with the Boston Children's Hospital of the Harvard University, USA," a blog about the trip notes.

Dr. Francis Fynn-Thompson of Children's Hospital Boston is leading a team of 25 doctors, nurses, technicians, and other volunteers who are in the country this week, treating heart disease and surgically repairing heart defects in infants and children at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital at the University of Ghana. The group is also offering training on how to care for children with heart problems.

They have plenty of potential patients in their limited time there, team writer and photographer Matt Cyr says on the blog.

"Of the roughly 80 children who will be seen, 80 percent would already be on an operating schedule if they lived in the United States. But maybe only 30 are candidates for surgery here given the limitations the team faces," he writes. "There are five surgical days scheduled while we're here, and there's only time for two, maybe three, surgeries per day. That's an absolute max of 15 children, but it won't be that many."

This is the second trip to Ghana for Fynn-Thompson (left), who lived in the West African country from age 10 until enrolling at Harvard Medical School. The Boston team also includes Dr. Ravi Thiagarajan and Dr. Mark Scheurer from Children’s; Dr. Vipin Metha, cardiac anesthesiologist, and Dr. Judy Becker, pediatric cardiologist, from Massachusetts General Hospital; and Dr. George Ofori-Amanfom of the cardiac intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.