This week a team of volunteer doctors and nurses from Heart Care International have been in the Dominican Republic to perform a series of operations on children with congenital heart conditions. The 120 specialists flew in from the United States and have been carrying out the treatment at CEDIMAT and Plaza de la Salud alongside their Dominican counterparts, members of Heart Care Dominicana. The children benefiting from their work are from poor families who would not be able to afford this kind of treatment through via regular health channels. The most common surgery being carried out is to correct heart defects like Tetralogy of Fallot, more usually known as “hole in the heart”, which can be life-threatening. It is estimated that about 1,000 children are born each year with curable congenital conditions, but many of them die due to a lack of access to treatment. This is the seventh campaign of its kind, which has helped more than 300 Dominican children so far. In a separate health story, it has been announced that the Dominican baby girl born with an undeveloped additional head will undergo surgery to have it removed by Jorge Lazareff, the same surgeon who operated on the Guatemalan conjoined twins in California last year.