Bugando Medical Centre

A medical team from Israel’s Save a Child’s Heart, an international humanitarian non-governmental organisation, has successfully performed the first-ever paediatric open heart surgery on the youngest patient in Tanzania.

A statement availed to this paper on Sunday by the NGO said four-year-old Laurencia Simon, the daughter of two farmers in Mwanza, was diagnosed with a congenital heart disease two years ago.

“For the past two years, Laurencia has been too sick to go to school,” said her mother, Paulina Bujiku (27).

“We’ve been coming to the Bugando Medical Centre once a month. But what Laurencia needs is an operation. Thanks to Save a Child’s Heart, she’s about to get it. I’m scared, but I have faith,” she said shortly before her child was to undergo the operation.

The statement said after the long surgery on Friday, Laurencia was now recovering well.

“It required incredible team work to create an operating room that could meet our needs,” said Dr. Lior Sasson, the NGO’s chief surgeon and head of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Department at Wolfson Medical Centre.

“But we did it – we created an environment where we could carefully and conscientiously perform open-heart surgery and we saved the life of little Laurencia. What can I say- I feel incredibly proud,” he added.

Save a Child’s Heart doctors and staff worked in collaboration with the staff at Bugando Medical Centre and Kasbian Nuriel Chirich, Israel honorary consul in Tanzania, to prepare for the moment.

The hard work paid off, as children with heart disease came from across Tanzania to be examined by the Save a Child’s Heart team of doctors.

“There are about 200 sick Tanzanian children who will be examined by the

Save a Child’s Heart team,” said Dr. Akiva Tamir, the NGO’s chief cardiologist and head of the Paediatric Cardiology Unit at Wolfson Medical Centre.

“I am checking over 20 children every day and we all are committed to doing whatever it takes to help them and save their lives,” he added.

Eight to ten paediatric heart surgeries will take place this week in the country, the statement said, adding that the rest of children who need operations would be flown to Israel’s Wolfson Medical Centre later in the year – with all expenses paid by the NGO.

“Once the surgeries are completed 13 volunteers and supporters will climb Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain, to raise

USD1 million in order to save the lives of another 100 children in Africa suffering from heart diseases,” it said.

Amongst the climbers is Dr. Godwin Godfrey from Tanzania, who has been in

Israel during the past three years training with Save a Child’s Heart at the Wolfson Medical Centre. He assisted in Friday’s historic paediatric open heart surgery and would take part in all the surgeries in the coming week.

“It’s extraordinary,” said Dr. Godfrey, adding: “I finally see my people benefiting from my hard work. I now know that when I complete my training and return to Tanzania, I will be treating these children and doing everything I can to give them a second chance of life.”

Save a Child’s Heart is an Israel-based international humanitarian project providing life-saving heart surgeries and follow-up care for children from developing countries.

Source The Guardian

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