A Heart for Hawai‘i

Kapi‘olani Medical Center welcomes and treats all patients in need of heart help. (Photo courtesy Hawaii Pacific Health)

A Hawai‘i first that will save lives and save urgent travel to the mainland: Kapi‘olani Medical Center for Women & Children is opening a new Pediatric Heart Center this year. In fact, Kapi‘olani is the only medical center in Hawai‘i offering comprehensive cardiac services to children and young adults.

Two new cardiologists recently joined the Kapi‘olani family: Dr. Melissa Yamauchi and Dr. Dona Brekke, along with Dr. Louis Capecci, Stanford Children’s Health pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon: the first full-time pediatric heart surgeon at Kapi‘olani.

“I think that’s a giant milestone. [In 2022], Kapi‘olani will open its first cath lab working toward a comprehensive heart center,” shares Dr. Andras Bratincsak, Kapi‘olani’s first pediatric cardiologist.

“The turning point was when I met with one of my patient’s fathers, who kept asking how can he support the program, because his child was born with a congen- ital heart defect that required immediate surgery,” Bratincsak recalls, remembering how difficult it was to tell this father that his son needed an emergency transport to the mainland to get the care he needed: something not all families can afford.

Not long after the surgery, this same father asked Bratincsak to lunch, inquiring how he could help improve heart care for children in Hawai‘i.

Dr. Bratincsak recounts: “I say that I need a cath lab in the children’s hospital, so I can invite a heart surgeon to create a heart center, and then he asks me, ‘How much is a cath lab?’

“When I said we’ll need $2 to 3 million in seed money to start, I expected him to fall out of his chair, but then he said, ‘OK.’ So, I fell off my chair!” Bratincsak laughs.

This was in 2018. After this initial $2 million dollar donation, Kapi‘olani succeeded in raising $11.2 million until the end of 2020, allowing them to hire doc- tors Yamauchi, Brekke and Capecci for the center. Construction of the cath lab began in September with completion set for April 2022.

According to Bratincsak, 190 kids are born with heart disease every year in Hawai‘i, heart defects being unfortunately some of the most common birth defects.

“It’s really, really sad when you can’t offer all these tools to people who come to your office. The change [with the heart center] is so dramatic ...

“[The Pediatric Heart Center] assures all that this father has gone through shouldn’t happen any more for children of Hawai‘i. We won’t need to have emergency trans- ports and threatening situations for kids with heart diseases. They can receive the treatment they need right at home.”

hawaiipacifichealth.org/kapiolani