MABALACAT CITY -- The World Medical Relief, Inc. (WMRI) recently launched “My Heart, Your Heart” in Southfield, Michigan here as part of the group’s outreach program.
According to WMRI volunteer Noel Tulabut, “My Heart, Your Heart” is a joint initiative by medical experts, health institutions and patrons of charity that could help save thousands of heart patients all over the globe.
He said that “My Heart, Your Heart” is a medical program that calls for the recycling of pacemakers and eventual distribution of heart pacemakers to developing countries, including the Philippines.
It was formally launched during the 64th Anniversary and Gala Dinner of WMRI attended by leading cardiovascular experts here, WMRI Ambassadors of Health from various countries, benefactors, sponsors, officials and volunteers of the charitable organization, said Tulabut.
He noted that Dr. Kim Eagle, prime mover of the program and director of Cardio Vascular Center of University of Michigan, in his keynote address said that WMRI has been chosen to serve as pacemaker center.
“Were working with WMRI to create what we believe to be the first pacemaker recycling center in the entire world,” Eagle said. Eagle is considered as a “master cardiologist” by his peers in the US.
He described WMRI as “outstanding global charity organization.”
Eagle said that more than a million heart patients all over the world die each year for lack of pacemakers. The National Cardiovascular Data Registry estimates that from 2010 to 2012, some 63,500 devices were explanted or removed annually in the US alone. He said that the My Heart Your Heart program received 25,000 pieces of pacemakers to date.
For his part, WMRI President and CEO George Samson said that this program would enable the organization to achieve the mission of “helping God’s sick poor” as envisioned by its founder Irene Auberlin in 1953.
“Imagine what we can do to help needy people who don’t have money to get these devices. Brand new pacemakers cost anywhere from 10,000 to 25,000 dollars,” he said.
“We are glad to be a part of this program where sick people who don’t have access to these life-saving units could be helped,” Samson said.
Eagle has assured that pacemaker recycling is safe and that the US Food and Drug Administration has approved to compare new and used pacemakers.
“It works and it is safe. We developed a system to test devices. Make sure it would react to the conditions the human body may go through,” he said.
He added that they have published papers how to properly remove, analyze sterilized, repackaged pacemakers.
Studies and research for the pacemaker recycling under the My Heart Your Heart program has started seven years ago.