Angeles Cruz Martinez
Newspaper La Jornada
Thursday, February 17, 2022, p. eleven
Each year around 18,000 children are born in Mexico with some congenital heart malformation, most of whom require surgery, but only a third or when much
half, and not always with the best treatment, estimated Alexis Palacios, head of the Cardiovascular Surgery Division of the Kardias civil association.
The organization works in collaboration with the National Institute of Pediatrics (INP) to expand the offer of highly specialized services to children who require an intervention to correct their heart problem.
The specialist stressed that in Mexico there are only 10 hospitals -reference centers- to care for this type of patient. A greater number of highly specialized hospitals with medical teams focused solely on congenital myocardial malformations is required. It’s how you get the highest quality and most effective care, he said.
Reduce mortality
In a conference, he pointed out that Kardias emerged in 2001 as an alternative to the difficulties that specialists faced at the INP due to lack of resources, inadequate infrastructure and lack of training for doctors. At that time, the hospital received around 200 patients but mortality was very high.
There was an initial effort to integrate the interdisciplinary medical team, but they faced administrative obstacles that seemed insurmountable
. The next option was a collaboration with private hospitals and there the drawback is that there are few patients and it was not sustainable. From there came the initiative to work with the foundation of the ABC Medical Center and the INP with the financial resources of Seguro Popular. Since then, it has been possible to give children medical care and reduce mortality, the specialist said.
From 2012 to June 2021, through this mechanism, 701 children with congenital heart disease have been treated, of which 80 percent have been from the public sector. The most important thing, Palacios pointed out, is that the results are positive, since mortality is below 4 percent, which corresponds to international standards.
The specialist acknowledged that the number of children attended it is far from the needs of the country
. However, Kardias has shown that it is possible to offer high-quality medical care for the benefit of patients.
