GLENDALE : Cardiac Team Going on Medical Mission

River Plate Hospital in Entre Rios, Argentina, is far removed from the forefront of medical research and technology, but a team of Glendale cardiologists has taken the small rural community’s health needs to heart.

When they fly to Argentina on Friday, the cardiac team members from Glendale Adventist Medical Center--including a cardiologist, a radiology technician and a cardiac nurse--will take with them more than $60,000 in equipment to be donated to the hospital 300 miles north of Buenos Aires.

In addition, they will donate two weeks of their time, performing surgeries on patients and providing technical training in the latest heart procedures.

“River Plate Hospital is the only hospital in that area with a medical school and the facilities to perform cardiac procedures, but they don’t have anybody on staff who’s trained in the field,” said Dr. Edgar Aleman, the cardiologist who will lead the medical mission. Cardiac care is in high demand in Argentina, but the scarcity of trained professionals and the high cost of treatment often forces patients to endure long delays before they can be treated, Aleman said. The average cost of a pacemaker there is roughly equivalent to half the annual salary of a worker at Entre Rios Hospital, he added.

“This country is so rich,” he said. “Even if you don’t have any money or insurance, people can come to an emergency room at this hospital and they will be treated, period. So this trip is very rewarding for me, from a humanitarian standpoint.”

The training that the Glendale team will provide to medical residents and fellows at River Plate includes lectures on diet, exercises and stress control. It will be the second time in a year that staffers from Glendale Adventist have trekked to River Plate, one of its sister hospitals in the worldwide network of Seventh-day Adventist hospitals.

Last year, Dr. Hugo Riffel-Dalinger, who was born at River Plate and is now a staff cardiologist at Glendale Adventist, performed one of the first heart procedures there when River Plate opened its medical school and cardiac program.

Members of the cardiology staff hope to make at least two trips per year to the 87-year-old, 180-bed Argentine facility to help it adapt to the latest technologies, and to bring members of the River Plate staff to Glendale for training.