Eritrea, Africa, 2014 – Charitable participation in the Heart Help program aimed at performing cardiovascular and vascular surgeries on young patients.
What was the Heart Help programme in Eritrea?
In 2014, charitable participation in the Heart Help programme in Eritrea, Africa, with the aim of performing cardiac and vascular surgical procedures on young patients.
Heart Help is a charitable programme that performs cardiac and vascular surgical procedures on young patients in countries with limited access to such care.
See more about the activity and work of the team in the biography of Prof. Theodosios Bisdas.
What was the Heart Help programme?
A charitable mission that performs cardiac and vascular surgical procedures on young patients in countries where access to such care is limited. The participation of 2014 took place in Eritrea, Africa.
Why are such missions needed?
Cardiovascular procedures require infrastructure, equipment and trained staff that do not exist everywhere. Young patients with conditions that are treated routinely in Europe are left untreated in other countries. Such missions cover part of that gap.
What does such a mission involve?
Beyond the procedures themselves, it includes the preoperative assessment of the patients, the postoperative follow-up and, where feasible, the training of local medical staff, so that the benefit does not stop when the team leaves.
Where can you read more?
Δείτε το View Profile of Prof. Theodosios Bisdas and the other conference participations.
Which cases are treated?
Mainly congenital heart conditions and vascular conditions in children and young adults, which without surgery seriously limit their lives. The selection of cases is based on what can be treated safely under the available conditions.
What does it mean for patients?
For a young patient in a country without cardiac surgery infrastructure, such a mission can be the only opportunity for treatment. See also the page on the hybrid operating room.
Vascular surgery in resource-limited settings requires adaptation: the techniques are chosen according to the available equipment and the possibility of postoperative follow-up. The experience from such missions is different from that of a modern hybrid operating room. See the pioneering procedures.
