Part One: Preflight

Less than four months ago, eight students and graduate students from Biomedical, Mechanical, and Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan committed to spending their spring break on a mission to address a big global challenge.

They are heading to Guatemala…not in search a good time for themselves but to do some good for others.

Each year approximately 1,600 infants born in Guatemala are afflicted with a malformed heart, which can cause permanent brain, lung, and heart damage or death if not treated surgically within weeks of birth. Proper diagnosis in remote areas is a serious problem. And this team intends to do something about that.