Our entire world has changed dramatically over the past month as we struggle to cope with and combat the impact of Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). We are excited to share an inspirational story about a medical team from the US and Uganda who bonded together during this uncertain time to treat patients with heart disease and to continue building a sustainable heart surgery program in Uganda. Dr. Craig Sable from Children’s National Hospital arrived in Kampala, Uganda on March 8th, 2020 with four CICU nurses ready to begin a week-long training mission with 8 cases scheduled (6 of them with Rheumatic Heart Disease). The remainder of the training team was due to arrive a few days later. Dr. Sable and the nursing team met with UHI staff on Monday, March 9th to deliver critical supplies, review clinical data for scheduled patients, develop plans for transport, housing, and meals for patients coming from distant locations, and to finalize staffing plans for the surgical mission the following week. Over the next 72 hours the world changed dramatically. COVID-19 cases in the US soared from a few hundred to several thousand. Uganda (which had no confirmed cases at the time) closed its borders to US citizens, making it impossible for the rest of the team to travel to Uganda, and a travel ban implemented by the United States threatened to make it difficult for the five team members already in Uganda to return home. The team in Uganda faced a difficult challenge. Staying for a second week could jeopardize the team’s return to the US and compromise the team’s ability to work after their return; however, patients and families who had been waiting for heart surgery for months or years, knowing this might be their only chance, were counting on the surgery mission to go forward. After careful consultation with the UHI team, Dr. Sable decided that the operations for the sickest patients must continue as planned – but with the local team providing all of the care. Dr. Sable and his Ugandan colleagues knew the local team was ready to step up and take on this volume and complexity of patients. What ensued over the week of March 16 – 19, was not only life-saving for five Ugandans with end stage heart disease, but was also an inflection point for expanded cardiac surgical services at UHI which will help thousands of other patients in the future. The five patients shown in the photo had successful open-heart surgery and are all doing well, either on their way to recovery or already discharged to their communities, where they will, for the first time in memory, be able to play, exercise and go to school or work. Our sincere thanks to Dr. Craig Sable and the team at the Uganda Heart Institute for this inspiration and dedication to healing more hearts in Uganda.