Panama's chapter of the Rotary International recently brought in a team of pediatric heart surgery specialists to examine and perform surgery on Panamanian kids with operable coronary problems. The week-long mission, headed by Dr. Ross Ungerleiter, brought doctors, specialized surgical nurses and other technicians from Portland, Oregon's University Hospital to perform two operations per day at Panama City's Hospital del Niño.

Probably more important than the operations that gave several kids better prospects in life was the teaching component of the mission. Panama has some excellent surgeons, and some of our hospitals have been doing open heart operations for years. However, children are not just miniature adults and pediatric coronary surgery is a specialty unto itself, one at which Panama has been underdeveloped.

As a result of the Rotary Club's and the visiting specialists' efforts, however, surgeons and other professionals from the Hospital del Niño and Panama's Seguro Social system were trained, and now Panama has a pediatric heart surgery team of its own.