May 30, 2007, Deerfield Beach, FL – Platinum Television Group is pleased to announce the selection of Heartbeat International, Inc. for its innovative, educational television series, Health Forum. The organization will be featured in a segment as a "Model of Excellence: Giver of Life."
Heartbeat International provides, when medically indicated, implantable cardiac pacemakers to totally indigent patients in developing countries. These pacemakers are supplied to carefully organized and monitored pacemaker banks. With two exceptions, the pacemaker banks have been organized and are supervised by local Rotary clubs.
The pacemakers are frequently lifesaving. They invariably improve the quality of life for the recipient. But the pacemakers serve an even greater purpose. They foster peace and understanding between the inhabitants of the country in which the pacemaker bank is established and the United States. The program is a unique collaboration among cardiologists and other doctors, representatives of the pacemaker industry, and business and professional leaders, mostly Rotarians.
In 1984, Dr. Henry D. McIntosh founded Heartbeat. The first pacemaker bank was established in Guatamala; since then, the organization has grown to a network of 46 pacemaker banks in more than 28 countries. Experts and physicians at these banks assess the patient's condition and need, and distribute accordingly. Since 1984, physicians have implanted over 6,000 pacemakers, and 300-325 are implanted annually.
A non-profit organization, Heartbeat International is responsible for acquiring the more than $2 million of equipment necessary to complete its mission. In 1986, the late former President Ronald Reagan awarded Heartbeat International the President's citation for "Outstanding Services to the Community and for Finding Innovative Private Solutions to Public Problems." Heartbeat unites the physicians and the patients in a global quest to battle cardiac-related disease and rectify social injustice. Every pacemaker implanted gives the patient a second chance at life, a chance they would not have gotten in a third-world community.
"Pacemakers are Peacemakers" at Heartbeat International. Each pacemaker donated and ultimately used forges a bond between countries, saving a life and moving the world closer to a time of peace, international friendship, and cultural understanding.
For more information, see http://www.heartbeatintl.org/.