she learned the hospital lacked the equipment which could have provided him with an earlier diagnosis. That discovery inspired Mrs. Anderson to help found the Bermuda Heart Foundation (BHF) with Dr. Shane Marshall, Director of Cardiac Care at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital (KEMH). One of the five members of the Bermuda Health Alliance, the Foundation now helps to raise funds which KEMH can use to buy equipment and educate the community on heart disease. Capital campaign director for the Foundation, Mrs. Anderson, said the first achievement of the BHF was the purchase of a $40,000 Image Analysis Machine (IAM) which was donated to KEMH. The IAM provides side by side image stress/echo studies. The IAM screen shows the heart rhythm at resting rate and post exercise rate concurrently. In the first few months after its installation, this machine saved the life of a young athlete and has since helped numerous cardiology patients at KEMH. Later, a Telemetry machine was purchased for $80,000. "This machine allows eight patients to walk around simultaneously while being constantly monitored as if in the Intensive Care Unit,'' explained Unit Co-ordinator of Curtis Ward, Norma Smith who also serves on the BHF board as Medical Director of Blood Pressure Tracking.

''Shortly after the Telemetry machine was bought, five lives were saved after patients went into cardiac arrest and were revived by dedicated KEMH staff,'' shared Ms Smith Mrs. Anderson said the BHF is now concentrating on three goals: Purchase of equipment.

Additional diagnostics, which will enable the medical staff to catch heart disease prior to escalation.

Educating the community about heart disease and how it can be prevented. BHF hopes to establish a Heart Foundation Resource Centre at KEMH to co-ordinate this function, which is currently provided by volunteers. Useful medical information will become available via the Internet to assist physicians, patients and family members with treatment plans and travel to medical centres abroad.

According to Mrs. Anderson, it is also hoped that the Resource Centre will serve to provide a more private area for patients and physicians to confer.

The group also hopes to fund a new position -- a cardiac rehabilitation specialist, to co-ordinate overseas care and follow up with rehabilitation in Bermuda.

Roberta Robinson, manager of Cardiology at KEMH, said there has been a noticeable increase in heart care queries. This, she said, reflects an increase in the awareness of, and attention given to cardiac care by physicians' patients.

Bermuda Heart Foundation's (BHF) co-founder and Capital Campaign Director, Ramona Anderson displays a heart model with BHF Medical Director, Norma Smith.

According to the BHF, greater care is now being shown by physicians and the public to monitor the heart as a means of detecting any problems as early as possible HEALTH HTH