Two foreign teams of heart specialists have been in the country recently to perform free heart surgery, in the context of the fourth annual Operation Open Heart program at King Faisal hospital.

From November 11 to 22, an Australian medical team working with King Faisal Hospital visited Rwanda and performed cardiac surgery operations on 24 children. In addition, four children underwent surgery for Tetralogy of Fallot or “blue baby syndrome,” a premiere in Rwanda.

Tetralogy of Fallot is a complex congenital heart malformation which results in a lack of blood-flow to the lungs; this causes a lack of oxygen in the blood, thus a bluish tint on the baby’s skin. This syndrome occurs mostly in babies six months or younger, but it can also occur in older children and adults.

At the same time, another voluntary team, Chaine de l’Espoir from Belgium, has in close collaboration with Rwandan cardiologists and nurses performed 10 cases of interventional cardiac catheterizations.

Rwanda currently has very few cardiologists, which led to King Faisal hospital setting up the Operation Open Heart under which foreign teams visit the country every year to perform free surgery. However, according to the hospital’s spokesman, Dr. Joseph Mucumbitsi, in a few years the country will have its own cardiologists.

“The ministry of health is working to ensure that in the next five to six years, Rwanda has a fully equipped and self sustained cardiology program. Rwandans are already being trained in cardiac surgery in India,” Mucumbitsi said.

He further explained that they plan to cut the number of heart patients sent outside the country for treatment by 50%.

John Mc Cally, the director general of King Faisal hospital, also pointed out that whenever these foreign cardiologists are performing the operations, their Rwandan counterparts come along to observe and study the procedures. This year, for instance, a Rwandan cardiologist working with the Belgian cardiologists, performed device closure of a PDA, a common cardiac condition, for the very first time in Rwanda. It is a complicated procedure but one which King Faisal Hospital is planning to develop in the near future.

The Operation Open Heart program, which started in April 2006 with 19 patients, has now benefitted 95 children suffering from congenital and rheumatic heart diseases with an excellent chance of either complete repair or long term symptom improvement from the effects of cardiac condition. The team comprises of cardiologists, surgeons, intensivists, anesthetists, specialized nurses and other health professionals.

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