June 18 – On Sunday, June 22 the first mission to Senegal of the Association Bambini Cardiopatici nel Mondo will leave Milan. The non-profit organization with 20 years of work experience in the difficult countries is led by Professor Alessandro Frigiola, chief of Cardiac Surgery at the IRCCS Policlinico San Donato. Professor Frigiola will guide a team of doctors and nurses from different hospitals in Italy composed of two surgeons, two cardiologists, two anesthetists, an intensivist, a perfusionist and four nurses. The humanitarian mission will end in Dakar on Saturday, June 28. The group will operate in the University Hospital Fann for more than a week, treating approximately 20 children (0-13 years) with complex congenital diseases. The ssociation Bambini Cardiopatici nel Mondo will also help build the new Cardiac Surgery and Cardiology unit in the Pediatric Hospital of Dakar, which will be completed within two years. The association, which boasts the voluntary collaboration of more than 150 surgeons, doctors, nurses and technicians, was born in 1993 in Milan thanks to Frigiola and Silvia Cirri: the association organizes each month missions in various countries, it trains doctors, and builds surgery centers in deprived areas, so as to develop local health systems and lower infant mortality rate.
