LLU Overseas Heart Surgery Team provides lifesaving care and training in 16 countries on 4 continents
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| Members of the Loma Linda University Overseas Heart Surgery Team headed by Joan Coggin, MD, MPH (front row, sixth from right), vice president for global outreach, Loma Linda University Adventist Health Sciences Center, pose for a photograph in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. |
There is no other organization involved in international outreach at LLU better known than the Loma Linda University Overseas Heart Surgery Team. The team was organized in 1963 by Ellsworth E. Wareham, MD, emeritus professor of surgery, School of Medicine; and Joan Coggin, MD, MPH, professor of medicine, School of Medicine, and vice president for global outreach, Loma Linda University Adventist Health Sciences Center.
In its nearly 40 years of existence, the heart team has either established or helped to enhance the heart surgery programs in 16 countries on 4 continents. More than 1,000 individuals have directly benefited from the work of the heart team, and countless thousands of others have received care from health-care providers trained by heart team members. The team has provided life-saving care and training in Chile, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, the People's Republic of China, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.
Since 1995, the team has made five international trips--one each to Myanmar, North Korea, and Malaysia, and two trips to Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital in Hangzhou, the People's Republic of China.
Early in 1996, the Loma Linda University Overseas Heart Surgery Team received an invitation from the Korean Cardiac Society to visit Kim Man You Hospital in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea.
"We were very pleased to accept this invitation to take our heart team to North Korea," Dr. Coggin says, "and to share our medical and surgical skills with our North Korean counterparts."
Loma Linda's heart team was the first American medical team to visit North Korea since the country was divided following World War II.
In January, 1999, the Loma Linda team assisted Penang Adventist Hospital in Malaysia in developing an open-heart surgery program for children.
"It was a real pleasure for us to work at Penang Adventist Hospital," Dr. Coggin says. "The staff was exceptional, and it was nice to work with the same individuals in a hospital setting and then worship with them again in church services on Sabbath."