Feb. 5 – Volunteer doctors from Massa Carrara are traveling to Eritrea, those from Milan to Cambodia or Uzbekistan, and those from Turin to Somalia and Burma. Cardiac surgeons, cardiologists and anesthesiologists have joined their efforts to save the children suffering from serious heart diseases or congenital malformations of the heart. “In Cambodia – says Stefano Marianeschi, responsible for pediatric cardiac surgery at the Niguarda Hospital in Milan – we work at the Angkor Hospital for Children in Siem Reap, where local doctors are already able to intervene directly on a variety of congenital heart conditions. During our missions – two of which have already take place and two more are scheduled for 2014 – we operate on the most complex cases and devote at least an hour a day to training local teams, in order to eventually achieve full autonomy.” “After several missions in Asmara, Eritrea – says Dr. Nadia Assanta, cardiologist at the Pediatrician Hospital “Gaetano Pasquinucci” of Massa – we realized that many children suffered from cardiac diseases after banal sore throats due to untreated streptococcal infections. Consequently, in addition to our ‘ operating ‘ missions, we launched, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Eritrea, a prevention program: we go into schools to teach children what is a sore throat and how to treat it, so that it does not degenerate into rheumatic diseases of the heart.” To bear the costs of overseas travel and logistics, the Milan Foundation “Help The Children” provides adequate funds through its “Children’s heart” project, launched in 2005. “The first child that we have been able to operate thanks to our project – says Goffredo Modena president to “Help The Children” – was Elvis and he was 8 years. He lives in Zimbabwe, where not only there aren’t many properly trained surgeons, but even the structures are missing. So we took him to Italy, where he was successfully operated in Bologna; he then returned to Zimbabwe, where he now lives condition-free.”
