Three little figures wrapped in cartoon-covered blankets are the latest occupants of the paediatric ICU of the Wolfson Medical Centre (WMC) in Holon. Two of the children are Palestinian, and one of them has only one ventricle. Lucky to be brought here for surgery by Save a Child?s Heart (SACH), an NGO that provides cardiac care to children from developing countries who suffer from congenital heart disease, the children are likely to recover, say doctors.
One in every hundred children is born with heart disease. A third of those born with a heart condition survive. A lot of the deaths?especially due to rheumatic heart disease?can be prevented with timely care, doctors say. Which is what SACH has been providing to underprivileged children for 14 years now, helped in no small measure by 70 medical experts under the employ of WMC who voluntarily work overtime to save young lives. The patients, from newborns to teenagers, come from over 40 countries?Ecuador, Vietnam, China, Russia, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Iraq, Zanzibar, Nigeria, Congo, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. It costs $10,000?$7,000 for the medical procedure?to treat a child with a serious heart condition. While half the funds are raised in Israel, SACH has offices the world over and a young leadership project to reach out to students. (In Toronto, young volunteers recently raised $75,000 in just one night by organising a bowling camp.)
From 48 surgeries in 1996, when SACH was founded by the late cardiac surgeon Ami Cohen, to over 200 in 2009, the initiative has given new life to over 2,400 children so far. In a cheerfully-furnished three-bed room, Mariam, who has brought 10-month-old Rim from Gaza for treatment, is all smiles, as she points to the child and says something in Hebrew, which is translated by a discerning volunteer who has come to check on her: ?Her granddaughter has had her second successful surgery and they can go home soon.? SACH gets 300 volunteers a year, 200 of them students from across the world. Others offer to help out at the children’s home where patients accompanied by their mothers or aunts stay during the course of the treatment, typically for two or three months.
The home is a riot of colours, with toys strewn around in the play area and hand-painted posters and cards covering a ?Wall of Love?. Children of various ages sit on plastic chairs around a table, painting, playing and singing. A blackboard lists their names, their ages and nationalities. The mothers hang about the kitchen?they take turns to cook and pick up some Hebrew along the way. At any given time, there are usually about 20 children-in-residence. Laura, the Irish ?house mom? who started as a volunteer for SACH 10 years ago, says, ?The children look almost normal now. When they came here, most of them were blue in the lips and fingers and they were so sick they weren?t able to walk. With the treatment, they slowly gain weight and become healthier.?
Besides bringing children to Israel for critical care, SACH has trained 50 doctors and nurses from various countries and sent Israeli doctors on overseas missions, where they have performed over 130 life-saving surgeries along with local medical experts.
To contribute, log on to http://www.saveachildsheart.org