30 children to benefit from heart surgeries

Thirty young children will be able to breathe easy after free heart surgeries that will be performed by DHA cardiologists to treat cardiac congenital abnormalities as part of the Nabadat initiative.

Nabadat, which means heartbeat, is an initiative launched by the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) and Mohammed bin Rashid Charity and Humanitarian Establishment, to provide free medical assistance, surgery and post-surgical care to children whose parents cannot afford to pay for treatment of congenital heart diseases.

The DHA sponsors the treatment for Emiratis and the Mohammed bin Rashid Charity and Humanitarian Establishment sponsors treatment for expatriate patients.

More than 350 children (newborns to 21-year-olds) with congenital heart diseases have undergone life-saving procedures since its launch in 2007. The treatment is open to both Emirati and expatriate patients.

Dr Obaid Al Jassim, Head of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Dubai Hospital said: “This time we have cooperated with a team of cardiac experts from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and we will conduct open heart surgeries and diagnostic and/or interventional cardiac catherisation procedures over the course of one week.”

“The aim of this initiative is to reduce the economic and physiological burden faced by families of children with congenital heart problems, provide a new lease of life young children as well as help in transfer of knowledge and skills. The initiative also helps reduce the cost of overseas treatment as such surgeries cost Dh300,000 on an average abroad,” he said.

In the previous workshops, teams of experts from Italy and Sweden have taken part in this humanitarian initiative.

“Since its inception in 2007, more than 350 patients have benefitted. In this workshop, the youngest patient is a week old baby and the oldest is a 21-year-old boy who has previously undergone two open heart surgeries in Germany,” he added.

In terms of complex cases, he said most of the surgeries in this workshop are moderately complex and that the team will also perform an open heart surgery for a young boy with a Univentricular Heart which is an anomaly in which all blood flows through one ventricle.

This time, 40 per cent of the patients undergoing surgeries are Emiratis, the rest are expatriates and visitors. The patients are from Oman, India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Jordan, Syria, Palestine, Kenya and Philippines.

asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com