Some 11 Ethiopian Children Depart for Israel to Receive Free Heart Surgery

Some 11 Ethiopian children left for Israel on Monday to receive a free and life-saving open-heart surgery in Israel provided by a humanitarian organization known as Save a Child’s Heart (SACH).

SACH is a globally active NGO that treats children suffering from congenital and rheumatic heart disease that have little access to many countries.

The embassy of Israeli in Ethiopia in collaboration with SACH has organized the medical trips to the 11 children and their mothers, it was noted.

Israel’s Ambassador to Ethiopia, Alelegn Admasu sees off the children as they depart from Bole International Airport.

According to the Ambassador, the cost of a single cardiac surgery abroad is more than 20,000 USD.

However, SACH has helped thousands of children from around the world to get free life-saving cardiac surgery and care  in Tel Aviv including 772 Ethiopian children.

Israel has also helped Ethiopian Doctors and nurses to get training in Tel Aviv as part of a knowledge-sharing program in order to enable them provide assistance to the children at home after the surgery, he added.

According to him, up until now Israeli doctors have already come to Ethiopia in three rounds to perform life-saving cardiac surgery for children.

Mothers who have traveled to Tel Aviv accompanying their children expressed their joy for getting the chance.

Shakira Muzeyir, from Silete Zone of Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Regional State of Ethiopia stated her child has had cardiac since she was three months old.

‘‘I have encountered numerous challenges as I had visited various hospitals to see her healed. But after all, I have been through, I am very happy to get this chance that my child is going to get the heart surgery in Israel”

Feven Abebe, a mother from Addis Ababa said she was told that her 22-day old baby has a heart problem. Now my baby is eight months old and I can’t express his sickness, she said.

However, I am very happy that my baby gets the chance to go to Israel for the surgery, she added.

Adama city resident, Addisalem Tadese on her part, said she was told that her 8th-day baby has a heart problem, now she is seven months old.

“We don’t have the means to take our child to the hospital, so I am happy to get this chance. Other families like us should also get the chance,” she said.

Source: Ethiopia News Agency