Inside Pediatrics Fall/Winter 2024

CARDIOLOGY

GIVING BACK TO WHERE HIS HEART IS FOR ONE CHILDREN’S PHYSICIAN, AN ANNUAL TRIP TO PERU WITH HEART CARE INTERNATIONAL IS EXTRA SPECIAL

F or Children’s of Alabama cardiac pediatric intensivist Santiago Borasino, M.D., traveling to Peru each year as part of a team providing cardiovascular surgeries to children offers him a special way to give back to his home country. The trips are sponsored by Heart Care International, a nonprofit organization committed to saving the lives of children born with congenital heart defects. Volunteer medical teams come from cardiac centers throughout the United States, including Children’s of Alabama, to provide care throughout Latin America.

Borasino’s first trips were to Chiapas, Mexico, but after learning about the organization’s work in Peru, he focused his efforts there. “I get to give back to my country,” he said. “There’s always a lot of guilt for leaving. And so I get to go there, help with surgeries and give back to the country some— a little bit. This teeny tiny bit probably doesn’t repay everything that the country has done for me, but it’s a little bit. It’s very special to me.”

Santiago Borasino, M.D.

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Inside Pediatrics | Children’s of Alabama