Today, the Cardiovascular team led by Dr. Glen Kowalchuk held a press conference to celebrate the milestone, and explain how important this is to the country.

Dr. Francis Gary Longsworth - CEO, KHMH
"We've manage to see, evaluate, and in some cases, manage quite a few patients since the inauguration of the Cath Lab service."

Dr. Chadwick - Cardiac Lab Specialist
"Catheterization really is only half the story. What we're doing really is identifying severe cardiovascular problems which are correctable. And by correcting these problems, individuals who suffer from these problems, will be able to live longer, healthier, and more productive lives. What is done with the cardiac catheterization is that a tube is placed into the artery, through the leg - we're doing the femoral approach - the catheter is advanced to aorta, where the arteries that feed the heart come off, and we inject x-ray dye into the arteries that feed the heart, to visualize any potential blockages, or any particular shunts - holes - that may be there. Not every problem can be corrected, and that's unfortunate, but it does identify a number of cases which are treatable, or it helps to guide our therapy."

Dr. Adrian Coye - Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery
"The event may not be that the life is change or saved that point of doing the procedure, but the quality of life is made better because now, you're doing specific goal-directed therapies toward that condition that you've now clearly defined."

Dr. Curtis Samuels - Cardiologist
"Here at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, we don't have anybody who has the training or the skills in cardiac catheterization from a coronary perspective, but the plan is to actually involve training. The idea is to have a local team trained in the event that something will occur."

Dr. Adrian Coye
"We are bringing medicine - or cardiac care - from the dark ages, into what is accepted standard care. I would expect that within 2 years, we would be a stand-alone program, but what we have is an unparalleled generosity, where they are not coming for a year or 2, and that's it. This is a life-long journey, but it's just the begining, and we want that this program evolves."

Although local doctors still cannot perform the procedure by themselves, the team says that Belizean doctors should be able to do the surgery -alone- in 2 years.

Youths Design Virtual City

Today the first annual "My Virtual City" competition was held at the Princess Hotel and Casino. 8 teams from 6 schools designed and built models of futuristic cities, addressing social issues such as poverty, crime, health and pollution.

It was an all-day event, in which the students displayed and presented on their projects. The competition was guided by the theme "Designing our Future! Mobilizing People for Change!" , and it was done using hi tech mapping and planning software.

It was divided into 2 segments - a junior segment and a senior segment- and during the award ceremony that followed, the winners were beaming, and one was so overwhelmed by it all he was even moved to tears.

Max McField - Junior 1st Place Winner, BES
"I am representing all of us, and I just want to say thank you to the GIS, Ms. Catherina, Ms. Loretta, and especially Mr. Andrew, who went to a lot of practices with. We really couldn't do it without him. I really just want to say thank you for all of this for renting the Princess and everything. I really thought we were not going to make it, so we worked really hard. And at the end, when they were giving out some award on best use of GIS, and when we didn't get any, I thought that this wasn't looking good. At the end, I was shocked. It's a major honor, and it feels really good to us to have been going through all this, and then at the end come in at the top."

Chloe Kelly - Junior 1st Place, BES
"It's amazing, and it's worth all that working hard, and staying up. It's very worth it what all we have done."

Robin Schaffer
"So can you describe your project for me?"

Chloe Kelly
"It's an eco-friendly city that has many job opportunities, and has sustainable energy, which uses solar. And if something happens to solar energy, we have a back up, which is windmill power."

William Mahler - 1st Place Senior Winner, CCC
"Well, terra nova, a city of opportunities, built in such a way that all of you are invited, Thank you."

Phillip Gongora - 1st Place Senior Winner, CCC
"We feel happy and so excited because we worked so hard, and all this time we dedicated toward this competition, we feel ecstatic that we actually won."

William Mahler
"It's a feeling that cannot be expressed. Our city is basically founded upon education and also not excluding our history, so a city of opportunities, Terra Nova."

Robin Schaffer
"How did you get that name?"

William Mahler
"Well, it's a long story. Basically, it means new land, and we wanted things to be new. So that's how we came up with the name"

Phillip Gongora
"The Mestizo culture would say 'tierra nueva', so it's from that."

Robin Schaffer
"So how much hours did you put into it?"

Phillip Gongora
"A lot of hours."

William Mahler
"Nights, Days, sleepless nights. You can see it in our eyes that we are tired."

Phillip Gongora
"Last night was a sleepless one."

Brandon Bennett - 2nd Place Winner, New Horizon
"Well, Arcadia is an eco-friendly, technology-based city, which is very safe and economic, and hopes to improve Belize."

Robin Schaffer
"How did it feel to come in second?"

Brandon Bennett
"Well, it was a great relief because sometimes we had sleepless nights, working on the model, sleepless nights working on the virtual city. To tell you the truth, it was crunch time because actually thought that we couldn't finish. It was a great relief. Now we can finally go to sleep."

Osean Hyde - 2nd Place Winner, New Horizon
"We were trying so hard to win. We almost quit. We were so close to quitting, and we finally said that we couldn't allow anyone else to win. We did it and we won."

Prizes for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners were laptop computers, smart phones and ipods, respectively.



Belize Athletes Depart For Regional Games

A contingent of 35 Belizean athletes is tonight on their way to El Salvador where they will be representing Belize in the Annual Central American Junior Competition. The group left the city at 2:30 this afternoon by bus and is expected to arrive in El Salvador tomorrow morning.

7news caught up with them before their departure.

Deon Sutherland - Vice - President, BAAA
"Well, this is one of our mandatory events, the Central American Junior A and Junior B competitions, which we must attend for the year. It ranges from ages 15 to 19. This competition carries to categories: 15 to 17, and 18 and 19. These athletes will be competing in athletics: both the field and the track events. We have a contingent of 35 athletes, and 6 adults: me as the delegate, 3 coaches, and 2 female chaperones."

Monica Bodden
"Now, tell us about preparations for this. How was practice to get ready for this tournament?"

Deon Sutherland
"Well, you know that we don't have the facility. These kids have been working out at the MCC Grounds for the past few months, but what happened is that because the time was short for the BAAA to do an event without having the proper facility and funding, the results of the national secondary school athletic competition, which was held in Dangriga on the 4th and 5th of May, those results, were used to make the selection for the team here today. So, from that result, we have these teams."

The team is expected back in Belize on Monday.