DOHA: The Qatar Red Crescent (QRC) medical mission to Mauritania has performed 30 cardiac catheterisation operations for free on children born with heart problems and whose families cannot afford their treatment abroad.
The project was coordinated with National Center of Cardiology, Nouakchott, and Mauritanian Red Crescent.
For over eight days, the medical team examined 97 cases at the centre, and 30 children were catheterised in the heart after they were found medically and physiologically fit.
Doctors used latest technologies to treat defective heart valves and ventricular septal defects and conducted diagnostic cardiac catheterisations.
The mission distributed gifts and toys to the children as part of psychological support to help them respond well to treatment.
QRC Secretary-General, Saleh bin Ali Al Mohannadi, welcomed back the team, who accomplished a successful mission, hailing the good spirit showed by the three doctors, who voluntarily contributed efforts over 10 years of the programme in response to the call of humanitarian duty and in support of QRC’s goal to help the vulnerable everywhere to save their lives and preserve their dignity.
“Such missions are important as they sometimes are the only resort for thousands of children plagued with congenital heart diseases, which often cause death before 16. As such, timely medical intervention through catheterisation saves the lives of those children and raises their hopes of enjoying their childhood and living normally,” Al Mohannadi said.
Mohamed Lemine Ould Mohamed Vall, President, Mauritanian Red Crescent, thanked the members of the mission for their efforts towards the needy children and cooperation between both societies based on a three-year MoU signed in 2012 that covers health, food, capacity-building, and other fields.
Ahmed Ould Sid’Ahmed Agg, Secretary-General, Mauritanian Ministry of Health, said, “We thank the Qatari mission that came to Mauritania to perform heart surgeries on the children. It is an example of brotherly cooperation between both countries. We are willing to sustain and deepen this relationship.”
QRC’s catheterisation programme was launched in 2004 and implemented in many countries, including Sudan, Morocco, Mauritania, Syria, Lebanon, as well as Gaza.
Having performed 160 operations so far at a cost of QR2,240,000, the project targets at children born with heart anomalies in the neediest countries. On average, the cost is QR14,000 per operation.
The Peninsula
