Cardiologist Michael S. Womack, a longtime Lifeline mission leader received the highest decoration in Panama for someone who is not a head of state.  During the opening of the 2012 Central America and Caribbean Cardiology Congress, the Panama Minister of Health, Franklin Vergara, decorated Dr. Womack with the Order of Vasco Nunez de Balboa, in the degree of ‘Grand Cross’. In his speech, Vergara highlighted the work of Dr. Womack, whose mission has been to treat children who are born with congenital heart problems. Lifeline’s host hospital where Dr. Womack has visited for ten years is Hospital del Niño.  The families of the children treated have limited financial resources. Dr. Womack was the first surgeon to perform an intervention of the left arc of the heart in Panama. He is actively involved in the organization and projects which teach Panamanian pediatric cardiologists in basic diagnostic techniques for interventional catheterization. The non-invasive method can pre-empt open heart surgery which allows the children to return home earlier.   Regarding his award Dr. Womack wrote: “This is taken as a sign that the host country appreciated what we have done, and when I say “we” I also mean Children’s Lifeline, very much.”