In US hospitals and other developed countries, diagnostic medical equipment is prevalent. However, in many underdeveloped countries, like Peru, common cardiac assessment tools, like an electrocardiography machine or ECG (often called EKG), is often in need of repair, outdated, or simply nonexistent.
Dr. Mariano Brizzio & Lourdes Cuadros, RN
When CardioStart’s Mission Director, Dr. Mariano Brizzio, was preparing for the upcoming mission to Arequipa, Peru, in September 2012, he discovered that Honorio Delgado Hospital did not have an ECG for use with pediatric patients. Hospital staff would often use the ECG from another department that included adult leads and “adapting” it to children. Dr. Brizzio thought just maybe CardioStart could help.
The ECG Odyssey
With two-weeks to go before the Peru mission, Dr. Brizzio began a chain of events seeking to obtain a donated ECG machine and deliver it to the hospital at the start of the mission. Through e-mail traffic, requests and inquiries went out through CardioStart’s network. In just a few days, one was found and donated from All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. With CardioStart’s headquarters located in nearby Tampa, All Children’s regularly donates hospital supplies for CardioStart missions.
Through several hand-offs, the ECG made its way to CardioStart’s Board Chair, Dr. Tom Hilton’s home near Jacksonville, Florida. Dr. Hilton was joining the Peru mission team and hand-carried the ECG and delivered it to the pediatric department at Honorio Delgado Hospital. It is the first time that doctors and nurses who care for pediatric patients have exclusive use to their own ECG. The hospital staff was extremely grateful for the donation.
“It was a pleasure for me to be able to allocate this ECG machine,” said Dr. Brizzio. “It was very much-needed to satisfy the high demand of pediatric care at Honorio Delgado Hospital.”
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