Why operate children in their own countries?
The cost of an operation in Europe and the USA of course far exceeds the cost of operating on these children in their own countries. As a result the money spent on an operation for one child would cover the expenses for operations on at least 5.
In other words, if the total cost of an operation, in Italy for example, is around 25,000 Euros (including transport, food and lodging for one or both parents), the same amount spent on going out to operate ‘on the spot’ would cover at least 5 operations.
This difference is of the utmost importance, and this is why the doctors of “the Heart of Children” are doing all they can to operate on patients in their own country so that local specialists, after their initial experience, will be capable of continuing the work in their Medical Centres by themselves.
How the Heart of Children acts in foreign countries
A team from the Association will then transfer to the locality where they will make a definitive evaluation of the cases, conduct operations in collaboration with the local doctors, placing themselves at their disposal for lessons or seminars on subjects of major interest in the field of heart surgery.
The team will make periodic visits (from 2 to 4 times a year) to the Centre and work there from 8 to 10 days.It usually consists of 5-6 specialists:
- A cardiologist
- An anaesthetist
- Un anestesista
- A nurse for ICU
At the moment the Association is giving its aid to the following Medical Centres:
- Tirana, University Hospital Center “Mother Theresa”
- Casablanca, Humanitarian Institute “Les Bonnes Oeuvres du Coeur"
- Donetsk, Gusak Institute, University of Ukraine
- Cluj, University Heart Center Niculae Stancioiu
- Bucarest, The Emergency Clinic Center of the Army for the Cardiovascular Diseases
The Association intends to meet the needs of the project on a budget basis, supplying whatever instruments and/or apparatus it considers necessary for its activities in each targeted locality.
For this reason it intends to seek concrete aid from the institutions of the Countries themselves or else from organizations operating at international level.