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Below you will find news items and articles relating to Project Pacer International activities and staff.
Posting on the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences web site (January 20, 2006)
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Cardiology Cathlab Team Implants Free ICDs and Pacemakers in 21 Patients
19 January, 2006 - The Adult Cardiology Catheterization Laboratory recently implanted several high cost,
Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (ICD) which had been donated by Project Pacer International.
A total of 21 patients underwent successful implantation of 10 ICDs, 2 CRT devices and 9 Pacemakers.
A team of doctors from AIMS, headed by Dr. K. U. Natarajan and Dr. Prakash Kamath, the Cardiac Arrhythmia
and Electrophysiology specialists, performed the implantation of these devices, along with Dr. Roy John, MD, PhD,
and Dr. David Martin, MD from the Lahey Clinic, Burlington, Massachusetts.
The patients included a eleven year old child whose heart defect was previously closed surgically.
Ms. Kathlean Malewiki, the Cathlab Nurse Manager of Lahey Clinic, who had put in extra efforts to obtain
the various devices and accessories from the manufacturers, supported the implantation along with the AIMS
nursing team headed by Mrs. July Eldo, and the Cathlab Technical Team, lead by Mr. Shinto Joseph.
Dr. Muthukumar provided the anaesthetic support for the implantation procedures . . .
full article
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Dr. Salil Midha honored by the Indian Medical Association of New England The Indian Medical Association of New England named Dr. Salil Midha as the 2005 recipient of the distinguished Community Service Award. The award is presented in recognition of outstanding service to humanity and community service above and beyond the practice of medicine.
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Announcement of mission to India in The Hindu online edition (January 28, 2004):
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Free pacemaker camp
NEW DELHI JAN.27. Project Pacer International in association with the Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Science and Research would organise a free pacemaker implementation camp for needy patients from February 2 to 6 here. All cost related to the procedure including the pacemaker device, hospitalization, medicine and consumables would be waived. PPI is a non-profit organisation that has implanted over 350 pacemakers over the past 13 years in many countries across the globe. It is headed by an eminent retired cardio-thoracic surgeon, Dr. V.K. Saini from Boston. Other core team members who would be visiting India for the camp are Ms. Susan De Turk (cardiac nurse), Dr. Salil Madha and Dr. Roy M. John.
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Online article that appeared in India New England Online (March 15, 2003):
Heart Docs
Each year, the members of Project Pacer International travel to India and other developing nations, offering free care to patients who otherwise might not survive Vandana Maini was a skinny, 17-year-old high school student who suffered repeated fainting spells when Dr. Salil Midha first met her on a trip to India. Not only did Vandana lack access to quality health care, many of her teachers and peers thought she was faking her blackouts. A visit with Midha and other physicians confirmed Vandana was not a liar. She had a complete heart block, a congenital condition which gave her a heart rate of 25 to 35 beats per minute, rather than the normal 70 beats per minute. Vandana became the first recipient of a pacemaker from Project Pacer International, a non-profit organization that travels to less-developed nations and provides medical services to the poor. That was 1991. Today, Vandana is a healthy, 28-year-old teacher and just one of the project's success stories. Midha and five other project members recently returned from their 12th annual trip to India, where they performed 10 pacemaker installation surgeries. Accompanying the group was $150,000 worth of supplies donated by U.S. medical companies. "We pay our own airfare as doctors and we make sure that the receiving hospital does not charge patients any money," said Midha, 50, director of cardiology at Melrose-Wakefield Hospital in Massachusetts. "Essentially patients get free care. These are poor people who probably would not survive without this level of medical care." For example, he says, the cost of a pacemaker in India is between 50,000 and 100,000 rupees. A poor person typically earns 2,000 to 3,000 rupees a month. On this recent trip, the doctors installed 10 pacemakers at the Sita Ram Bhartiya Institute in Delhi and the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education in Chandigarh, Punjab. Patients included a 28-year-old mother whose children are 3 and 5. "Her heart was blocked and, every so often, she would become unconscious and have to lie down," Midha said. "They had no money; her husband works on a daily-wages job, meaning if he makes money, he brings food home. We did a pacemaker on her and we hope she'll be fine and take care of her family." Each year, before the doctors arrive in India, the hospitals there advertise that treatment will be available for heart patients. They select 20 to 30 people and then Project Pacer runs its own clinic, screening that group for the most needy patients. Indian doctors assist in the patients' pre- and post-operative care, monitoring wounds and administering antibiotics. The hospitals do not charge Project Pacer patients for the drugs, which can be quite expensive, Midha said. When families express their gratitude to Project Pacer, doctors have a simple request: Go to the temple and make a small donation to God. "We make sure that we don't accept anything from anybody," he said. "It's a pure voluntary and pure charitable mission." This year, project members also spent time training Indian physicians on some of the newer methods of installing pacemakers. Dr. Roy John, a systems professor of physiology at Lahey Clinic, gave lectures on the prevention of sudden cardiac death and the use of bi-ventricular pacemakers in congestive heart failure. Other project members who traveled to India this year were Dr. V.K. Saini, a former cardio-thoracic surgeon from Southeastern Massachusetts; Susan DeTurk, a registered nurse from Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinic in New Hampshire; and Kathy Malewicki, a registered nurse from the Lahey Clinic. In all, Project Pacer has made 24 trips to countries such as Paraguay, Bolivia, Argentina and China, installing more than 250 pacemakers. The group is particularly grateful to two medical companies, Metronics and Guidant, which have donated thousands of dollars worth of medical equipment. Of all the patients Midha has treated on his 12 trips to India, Vandana continues to tug at his heartstrings. "She would never get married in India because the people in India have a stigma, that with a pacemaker, nobody would ever give their boy to her," he said. Midha and his wife are trying to find a charitable organization to help bring her to the United States. "If she was in this country she would be married and she would live a normal life," he said. "She is absolutely the nicest individual and a very pretty girl." Donations may be sent to Project Pacer International, 40 Williams St., Brookline, Mass. 02446.
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Article in The Tribune - India edition (February 11, 2000):
American doctors repair 'broken' hearts By Poonam Batth Tribune News Service CHANDIGARH, Feb 10 — Hold your heart! For cardiologists working at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) will now offer the technique of Radio Frequency Cathether Ablation (RFA) to patients having abnormally rapid heartbeats. The Head of the Department of Cardiology, Prof Jagmohan S. Verma, said though the knowhow of the technique was already there, but, in the absence of the equipment required, ablations were never performed here. A team of doctors associated with Project Pacer International of the USA, have for the first time, used this technique along with some faculty members to treat eight patients in the PGI. Though, in these cases, they had carried out the procedure with the help of the hardware brought by them, it would shortly be done on routine basis at the PGI after the equipment arrived, said Dr Verma. The use of this technique will help treat frightening symptoms in a patient such as fast heartbeat, dizziness, fainting spells and breathlessness. These palpitations may not be life-threatening but cause great deal of discomfort. However, this technique which assures nearly 100 per cent cure will be a boon for the people of this region, as till now, it was not available in any state, except Delhi. Explaining the technique, Dr David T. Martin, one of the visiting doctors and Director of the Cardiac Electrophysiology Laboratory, said that the process involved putting wires into the heart and studying its electric signals to locate areas which produced abnormal rhythms. "Once that is localised, we apply radio frequency energy to prevent this rhythm from occurring again,'' he added. The technique is used to modify the electric pattern of the heart from where it originates. The technique which would normally cost anything between Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000 in private hospitals, was provide free of cost to four patients by the team. In the PGI, it will cost about Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000. Dr Martin is accompanied by Dr Roy John, another cardiologist electrophysiologist, and nurse Kathy. "After the treatment, I feel much better, after having suffered the problem of palpitation for the past 13 years,'' said Veena, a 42-year-old patient. Mr Ajit Lal, a resident of Yamunanagar, is another beneficiary, who had the problem since 1992. The team of doctors, under the chairmanship of Dr V.K Saini, a founder member of Project Pacer International, a sponsored medical mission to provide free care to poor patients, has once again provided free pace makers to a few poor patients. Dr John, who is in the PGI for the second time as part of the team, said the team, chose a new destination every year from among developing countries for giving away these devices donated by some companies or bought from funds collected by the Rotary Club and other such agencies. They have been to Bolivia, Paraguay, Ecuador, China also. They visit India frequently to help needy patients in the AIIMS, Delhi; Sitaram Bharti Hospital, Delhi; the PGI, Chandigarh; and the CMC, Ludhiana. "We contact key persons in these hospitals and they in turn, inform poor patients about our visit,'' said Dr John. "In a week's stay, we try and perform 6 surgeries daily." One such patient, Shyam Kali, wife of a poor gardener, who was not in a position to get a pacemaker costing about Rs 1.5 lakh, might not have lived but for the help provided by this team. "I am so grateful to them for giving me a new lease of life. Now, I can look after my children and husband, she said. Mother of two children, she had been feeling dizzy and would often faint due to an abnormal heartbeat. A shock box will now regulate the heartbeat and ensure that it works well. However, patients fitted with pacemakers have to come for regular follow-up surgeries to ensure that the battery is alright. If need be, adjustments can be made from outside the body. Another patient, Mr A.L. Sethi was also saved by these doctors. The 72-year-old man would often faint and fall to the ground and at times, it appeared that the heart was not beating. Some of the other beneficiaries are Karam Singh and Banwari Lal. Besides this, the team has also fitted three cardiac defibrillatators in the bodies of patients to check the abnormal rapid heartbeats. These cost about Rs 9 lakh and the surgery takes about 2 hours.
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Article in the Hindustan Times (February 3, 2004):
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