The Loma Linda University Overseas Heart Surgery Team, a highly specialized group of heart surgery experts, has now performed surgery in Pakistan, India, Thailand, Taiwan, Greece, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Kenya, Zimbabwe, the People’s Republic of China, Chile, North Korea, and the Kingdom of Nepal. Wherever they go, they either initiate or upgrade open-heart surgery programs.
Team members travel to countries where heart surgery has rarely, if ever, been performed. The team includes all the specialists and technologists required for the most delicate surgery, including cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, laboratory technicians, respiratory therapists, and heart-lung machine technicians. They take with them all essential equipment; sutures, medications, instruments, valves, and a spare electricity generator. Everything, down to the last swab! Only the operating table and the patients' beds can be expected. This careful preparation has resulted in surgery success equal to that in the best surgery centers in the United States.
By careful prearrangement, each member of a similar medical group from the local country works side-by-side with his or her American counterpart and learns the different technical skills and roles. They also discover how much teamwork is required. These successful new teams have been heartily appreciated by local patients and governments.
In 1970, the team set up a heart surgery program in Athens, Greece, at the 1,500-bed Evangelismos Hospital. During the first five years of the program more than 800 patients underwent heart surgery.
In 1976, the Saudi Arabian Department of Defense invited the team to make two trips to Hamis Mu shayt, where they conducted the first heart surgery ever performed in Saudi Arabia—86 surgeries in four months. The Royal Saudi Arabian Air Force transported patients from all over Saudi Arabia for the life-saving surgery. Later, eight Saudi Arabian technician trainees spent 65 weeks at Loma Linda University Medical Center to enhance their clinical experience.
Over the years one of the greatest difficulties met by the team was finding blood donors. Because each surgery requires a minimum of six pints of blood, at least six donors are needed for each patient. In Saudi Arabia, blood initially was donated by the military who were given days off for donating. Now, patients recruit donors for their own surgeries. Because finding donors is not always possible, team members routinely give their own blood. On many occasions one of the heart surgeons has temporarily left the surgery room, unscrubbed, donated blood, rescrubbed, and finished the operation—with his own blood.
Over the years the Heart Team has consisted of hundreds of nurses, respiratory therapists, technicians, cardiologists, and surgeons. In 2002, many of them convened in honor of Dr. Ellsworth Wareham’s 87th the birthday. Numerous tributes to both Drs. Wareham and Coggin illustrate the emotion, camaraderie, rich memories, and humor experienced by team members. They identified themselves as real people, from rascals and rogues, to timid souls who got out of the box of their daily routines, got a glimpse of the rest of the world, and involved themselves in a humanitarian mission they could all be proud of.
They saw Dr. Wareham offer up his arm when a young child needed a blood transfusion. They taught the Vietnamese how to throw Frisbees. They named a miracle lady “Mrs. Lazarus.” They marveled at the fact that most of them were J’s: Joan, John, Judy, Joyce, Jim, John, Jerry, Jerry, and Janette. “Even though there was an ‘E’ [Ellsworth] in there, he fit in quite well.” Through their experiences, two nurses, Joyce Johnston-Rushe and Janette Whittaker-Allen became like sisters. Regarding the banter she witnessed, Janette said that working with Drs. Wareham and Coggin was like working with Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore.