Joyce Major, Author at CardioStart International

About Joyce Major

For the past five years, Joyce has been traveling the world as a volunteer. She is an award winning author of "Smiling at the World: A Woman’s Passionate Quest for Adventure and Love." Joyce recently joined the CardioStart mission team in Kampala, Uganda in November 2012.

Smiles Amid Struggles
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Smiles Amid Struggles

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Smiles Amid Struggles

Lots of stress today, one of our patients is not doing well after his surgery, and the team is filled with sorrow and worry. So much about the medical field that I am unaware of…the sheer responsibility of someone’s life. Yet I walk around the hospital and find smiles and kindness from the people here. One woman came up to me to thank the Cardiostart team for coming all this way and to say what a difference the surgery made in her life. The waiting rooms hold so many people [...]

By Joyce Major|2017-02-01T22:15:01-05:00November 16th, 2012|Blog1, Homepage Featured|0 Comments

Heart Surgery for Ugandian Soldier

Van Tran, one of our medical data people, interviews every one of our patients about their socio-economic status. Some people want to talk and others just want to answer the questions. Ologi, 36 yr old, told his soldier’s tale. At 14 he became a soldier. Why? He wasn’t swept away or stolen but felt the need to defend his country against rebel activities and he was proud of being a soldier — at 14. He ran away from his family and didn’t let them know where he was for three years. [...]

By Joyce Major|2017-02-01T22:15:01-05:00November 14th, 2012|Blog1|0 Comments

Miracles Abound in Uganda

I’ve talked about the amazing team Cardiostart brings to Uganda. Two of those people, Ashad from Pakistan and Sandy from the USA, have a huge responsibility. They are biomedical engineers and their job is to fix all the machines and to teach and collaborate with the one biomedical engineer employed by the hospital. It is an enormous job and responsibility. Ashad is MacGyver or just Magic. And if you think about heart surgery, you know how important all the machines are to patients. It is a crucial part of the success [...]

By Joyce Major|2017-02-01T22:15:01-05:00November 14th, 2012|Blog1|0 Comments

Student Outreach: Florida to Uganda
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Student Outreach: Florida to Uganda

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Student Outreach: Florida to Uganda

High School students in Florida send science textbooks with medical supplies Today, some of us sorted through the supplies and equipment CardioStart shipped to Mulago Hospital a few months ago. Among the shipment was four large boxes packed with science textbooks given by Dan Carella, a high school science teacher, and some of his students in Florida. In fact, Dan and some of students helped pack the 40-foot container at the CardioStart office in Tampa. I was asked to help find a local school that would like these great books. [...]

By Joyce Major|2017-02-01T22:15:02-05:00November 12th, 2012|Blog1, Homepage Featured, News|0 Comments

Uganda Mission: A Volunteer’s View
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Uganda Mission: A Volunteer’s View

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Uganda Mission: A Volunteer’s View

If you put together cardiologists, perfusionists, surgical techs, ICU and pediatric nurses, emergency physicians, respiratory therapists, anesthesiologists, data processors, biomedical techs and all the supplies that they can bring along with two enormous shipments, the result is a well oiled machine. These people come here as strangers and represent the countries of Uganda, Nigeria, UK, Germany, Pakistan and the USA. These volunteers pay their own airfare and use their vacation time to work for the good of the patients and to improve the quality of care. These talented, devoted professionals energetically attacked [...]

By Joyce Major|2017-02-01T22:15:02-05:00November 12th, 2012|Blog1, Homepage Featured, Past Missions|0 Comments