Marlie Mount Primary past student ‘100% on Jamaica’ educators with TagHeart Foundation

But in the last few years she and husband Mark McTaggart, who is an avionics engineer, saw themselves branching out on their own.

In January of 2022 the couple – both Jamaican-born – established the TagHeart Foundation with the main aim of caring for educators back home in their tropical native land.

It’s a unique approach for a medical charity, yet it is an important niche “as all of us have had one teacher or another” who left a lasting impression in our hearts and minds.

Last month the foundation, a registered charity in the United States, embarked on its first mission. It was the most opportune time for the team to travel to Jamaica, where 10 educators recently died within a four-week period. Their deaths were linked to several non-communicable and lifestyle diseases.

This sudden rise in death among teachers emitted a sense of fear throughout the education sector. However, the timely birth of TagHeart Foundation will seek to allay such fear over the short, medium and long term.

Together with her husband and also close friend Thornia Smith, who is a consultant in the medical field, Dr Thomas visited the Marlie Mount Primary and Infant School situated in Old Harbour in south central Jamaica. It’s the alma mater of Thomas, who grew up in Colbeck district, north of the town centre. There was no better place to start said Dr Thomas after screening some 53 persons mostly teachers and other members of staff.

“We chose Marlie Mount because Marlie Mount was my first exposure to the education system back home,” said Dr Thomas, who is a physician and medical unit director at the NYU Langone Hospital in Long Island, New York.

“We went in, we provided health screens on site, so in between classes, teachers, auxiliary staff, guards, anybody who is on campus, they could come by. We would see them, we would do height, weight, BMI, which is [used as] an indicator for obesity and risk factor for multiple conditions [like] heart disease, stroke and things like that.”

Each patient was given a package of educational literature filled with useful health tips on some of the most prevalent diseases in Jamaica and which affects predominantly people of colour.

“We try to encourage them to develop better sleeping habits, increase their water intake, exercise, meditate, minimize stress, things of that nature,” Dr Thomas explained during an interview with Old Harbour News. “So we focus a lot on their wellbeing from a preventative perspective.”

“Health is wealth,” said the goodly doctor, repeating the popular phrase. 

It was mission accomplished for the team after a long day and a satisfactory first step towards a much larger goal.

“I felt that this is why I’m a doctor, that this is my purpose, this is my calling. It reminded me why I do what I do and to have the opportunity to give back to our own people and starting with my home town, is indescribable,” she said from their New York home, before adding: “The whole entire day I did not look at my watch once, I didn’t call my mother to check on my son once. Me is nervous mother and I never call and checked on him one time.”

“It was always a passion of hers to go back and to see her own people and to predominantly take care of them,” Mr McTaggart chimed in, himself a Kingston College old boy. “It was very rewarding and they (teachers) were very thankful. And they were like a family, they made us feel welcome.”

School Principal Calvin Harris, says the teachers are “extremely appreciative” of the service and care delivered by TagHeart Foundation and “words cannot express our gratitude for you having thought of us and having extended your hands to assist in this dynamic way”.

“The Marlie Mount Primary and Infant School is quite appreciative of the fact that we have one of our outstanding past students who is a medical doctor by profession, having thought of giving back to her school and the community by extension and decided to come and have a medical examination and consultation of our teachers,” Harris told Old Harbour News. “It is novelty in the sense that it is the first we’ve had a past student having returned to the school, decided on focusing on the educators instead of the students.

“I think it is quite befitting, particular at a time like this where there is so much happening to our teachers. The environment seems to be unconducive for teachers and teachers are leaving this island in droves because of the strenuous work and the kind of remuneration they are getting for the kind of service that they give.

“The post pandemic, to a lesser extent, is still affecting our teachers psycho-socially and medically. There are many struggling with various kinds of ailments due to fatigue and frustration and all sort of social, mental and emotional struggles and so I’m particularly pleased to have her sharing and giving back to us in such a dynamic way. The teachers are extremely appreciative. She has really made a mark because for once in a lifetime since I have been there, we’ve never had a situation in which the give-back was towards the educators. So I’m really, really happy and I must say thank you very much Dr Odette Thomas.”

As anticipated a few persons examined on the day displayed critical health signs and were immediately directed to see their personal general practitioner.

“We had a few where blood pressure was ridiculously elevated, where they would be straight admitted if seen in my emergency room,” Dr Thomas disclosed, while acknowledging the support of the Lions Club of Old Harbour on the day. “There were persons who were hypertensive but they weren’t known to be previously before. Then you have those who were known hypertensive but they were non-compliant; they didn’t understand that you need to take your medication every day not just sometimes or when you feel like.”

A lot of the health issues observed were stress-related and persons “not having the time nor the energy to take care of themselves”, she pointed out.

“A lot of the female teachers… running around and not hydrating. Simple things as drinking water,” she said. “So it’s bringing awareness to the behaviours that contribute to an unhealthy outcome.”

Like most of us on the planet and for especially those who worked in the health sector, the coronavirus pandemic was a teaching moment for Dr Thomas who worked right through the frightening ordeal and thankfully survived to tell the tale as well. She said to witness first-hand “trailers of dead bodies” made her fast-tracked plans to bring TagHeart Foundation to reality.

“We push through because that’s what we do,” she said. “It [the pandemic] put things into perspective, that life is precious, that without our help what do we have? It changed everything.”

Though still a fledgling organization Dr Thomas has made it clear that their mission is focused “100% on Jamaica” with a view to expand its outreach to every institution of learning on the island and “bring more resources to schools and to the teachers”.

On top of that the couple wants to create a legacy that will outlive them, an inheritance for their two children to build upon.

The ingredients and desires are already in place for such realization to occur with colleagues at NYU Langone Hospital offering to volunteer whenever they’re needed. 

“This is something that we can potentially grow and expand,” said the former board director of Future Leaders of Jamaica.

“When my husband and I decided that we need to continue the trend of giving back, we wanted to make sure that our children saw us giving back to all groups where we came from [and] this is what bears fruits.”