(MENAFN- The Peninsula) As part of its Ramadan campaign, Qatar Red Crescent (QRC) is preparing to send a medical team to Mauritania to perform cardiac catheterisations on poor children with heart diseases who cannot find treatment locally or abroad.
This year, 35 youngsters aged between two months and 16 years are targeted, with a budget of QR826,412. On average, the cost is nearly QR25,000 per operation.
The annual cardiac catheterisation project began in 2004 and is financed primarily from the revenue of Ramadan fundraisers.
The project treats heart congenital disorders and diseases among poor children, such as holes in the heart, defective heart valves, using catheterisations instead of surgery. Over 11 years, the project has treated 190 children in Gaza, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan, Syria and Lebanon at a cost of QR2,940,000.
It is conducted in cooperation with Hamad Medical Corporation whose senior cardiovascular specialists join volunteers and HMC also provides some medical materials needed for the mission.
QRC staff are coordinating with National Centre of Cardiology Nouakchott and Mauritanian Red Crescent to shortlist beneficiaries and assign a medical team.
Such missions are often the only resort for thousands of children with congenital heart diseases, which often cause death before 16. Timely medical intervention through catheterisation saves the lives of such children and raises their hopes of enjoying childhood and living normally.
Mahfouz, 4, has a long story with the cardiac catheterisation programme. He was examined in 2011 by the first QRC mission to Mauritania.
Doctors rejected him because his weight was not fit for catheterisation. Medically, closing a hole in the heart requires a certain weight of the patient. Mahfouz grew up with the hole.
Fortunately, when his weight was normal, doctors performed the operation, inserting a special device to close a 4-6 mm cross-ventricular opening between the right and left ventricles.
He was put under observation for 24 hours to ensure there would be no complications. After that, he was allowed to go out with parents.
QRC has major developmental projects in Mauritania, particularly in the fields of water, sanitation, healthcare and relief for Malian refugees in line with a three-year memorandum of understanding with its Mauritanian counterpart, under which QRC has opened two representative offices in Nouakchott and Bassiknou to enhance humanitarian activities for needy communities.
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