Published On:Tuesday, March 02, 2010

By REUBEN SHEARER

Tribune Features Reporter

rshearer@tribunemedia.net

GETTING the word out about Bahamians having healthier hearts is the Bahamas Heart Association's aim in their eleventh annual Fun/Run/Walk planned for Saturday, March 20. Persons from all walks of life will gather at Goodman's Bay at 6 am sharp to begin a 5-mile trek by walking or running to Subway, Cable Beach, and back to Goodman's Bay for the award's ceremony.

The donation goes a long way in assisting children with heart disease in the Bahamas, said Thelma Johnson, president of the Bahamas Heart Association at a press conference to announce the walk yesterday.

The Bahamas Heart Association is strictly a volunteer association, and no one takes a salary. The association's arm is to educate persons in preventing the disease, so that they can downsize the high figures of heart disease in the nation.

Virtually every penny that is raised from the event goes to the direct aid of the children or patients they are assisting financially.

"We want to allow these children to have an opportunity for a full and rewarding life. So many children are being born with a hole in the heart, or valve problems and we pay for those surgeries," said R.E. Barnes.

The chairman of the Sir Victor Sassoon Bahamas Heart Foundation added: "We're very lucky now because we have a team of Bahamian cardiologists who we work with that can do these surgeries."

"Unfortunately, there are some complicated surgeries that the children have to be sent over to Miami for. Those operations are very expensive, which is why the BHA is open to any public assistance."

Heart surgery can run a patient into astronomical figures of up to $200,000. The Bahamas Heart Foundation funds about 10-15 of these heart surgeries annually. The more serious cases that need surgery are referred for doctors to determine if surgery can be done at home or in Florida.

"Cardiologists are able to screen children earlier now. We have so many here, where the child was identified with the problem. We are able to see the children while they're young and identify the problem very early.

"If a patient has to be transported to the US for medical attention, they are sent to Jackson Memorial Hospital, or Joe Dimaggio Hospital," said Mr Barnes.

Seeking treatment abroad can rack up to astronomical figures. Jackson Memorial Hospital is having a serious economic crisis right now, so the partnership they have with them may be in jeopardy he also explained. But the doctors see more children than that, and some of them are treated alternatively without surgery.

Mr Barnes explained that Drs Duane Sands, Conville Brown, Mark Weech andJerome Lightbourne, are members of the board who interviewed the children. "We really want to make sure that they really need us. A pool of children who don't have health insurance, and so they must not turn away anyone. The most urgent cases will be attended to first," he said.

The most recent case they are funding is a four-year-old child who has a very large hole in the heart. After close monitoring by local doctors, they thought it would close up by itself. But that wasn't the case, and the hole has to be repaired with surgery. The boy will be undergoing open heart surgery at Joe DiMaggio Hospital at the end of the month.

Heart disease is the number one killer for women in the Bahamas. Three times more women die from heart disease than breast cancer.

Cardiovascular disease includes diseases of the heart and blood vessels. Having high cholesterol, high triglycerides, arteriosclerosis, and high blood pressure, can predispose a person to heart disease.

But heart disease often goes undetected; it is known as a silent killer. Greater awareness of how heart disease affects the body could save lives.

Pre registration for the Fun/Run/Walk will take place Thursday through Saturday at the Bahamas Heart Association at Eves Building, directly opposite the Swiss Pastry Shop, Cable Beach and at Subway, Cable Beach and Subway Prince Charles. Online, registration is available at www.clubmonicaathletics.com. There's a $15 entrance fee, and included in the package is a T-shirt, squeeze bottle, and a bag. There will be no registration on the morning of the event. Colina Imperial, Insurance Limited, Gatorade, and Bally's Total Fitness are sponsors of the event.

Categories for the Fun/Run/Walk include Walkers, Runners, Under 15, Under 17, Under 20, Open, Masters, Wheelchair Division, and Celebrity.