Page 9 - MidWeek Honolulu - March 1, 2023

Kapi‘olani Medical Cen- ter for Women & Children in Honolulu is now home to a Pediatric Heart Center — the first and only of its kind in the state and Pacific region.
MARCH 1, 2023 9
Keiki At Heart Of New Medical Center
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“Families will no longer need to be separated during a time when they need each other and the support of their friends and neighbors the most,” states Gidget Ruscetta, chief operating officer at the hospital.
About 200 children in the state are born with a heart defect every year, according to hospital officials. The Pediatric Care Center will provide critical heart procedures for keiki, eliminating the need for many local fam- ilies to travel more than 2,500 miles to the main- land to seek care.
The center features the hospital’s first full-time pediatric heart surgeon, its first pediatric cathe- terization laboratory and a comprehensive and collaborative approach to treating keiki with health conditions.
(Clockwise from top) Six-year-old heart patient Mika Ohigashi with her parents Mark and Allison Ohigashi; a look inside the new Pediatric Heart Center; Dr. Andras Bratincsak, Kapi‘olani’s pediatric cardiologist, poses with keiki heart patients Mika Ohigashi, Jhreyzn Alforo-Solon and Leila-Rose Coloma. PHOTOS COURTESY KAPI‘OLANI MEDICAL CENTER FOR WOMEN & CHILDREN
The facility allows doctors to treat congeni-
tal defects, such as small holes in the heart and take measurements for samples. It has large vid-
eo monitors for fluoroscopy — a series of X-ray images that create a real-time mov- ie — that medical teams can use to observe the heart throughout the procedure. The screens can also play animated movies to help put young patients at ease.
a pediatric hospital, which comes with the added safe- ty and comfort of having an entire team of pediatric spe- cialists,” states Kapi‘olani pediatric cardiologist Dr. Andras Bratincsak. “The center is a dream come true for me and is truly a game changer for familes and chil- drens across the state.”
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The heart of a newborn is just a few inches around — about the size of a kukui nut.
Kapi‘olani raised more than $10 million to com- pletely fund the launch of the center and celebrated its debut on Valentine’s Day.
“The cardiac catheteriza- tion laboratory means chil- dren can have the lifesaving procedures they need inside
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