(Photo: Save a Child’s Heart)
By Israel Hayom - December 13, 2021
Mazen, an 11-year-old boy from the Gaza Strip, this month became the 6,000th child saved by the Israeli humanitarian organization Save a Child’s Heart (SACH), with support from the German foundation Ein Herz für Kinder.
Shortly after Mazen was born, doctors in Gaza diagnosed him with a complicated congenital heart condition that would require multiple medical procedures. As Mazen grew older, he began having difficulty breathing. To survive, he needed emergency surgery.
There are no centers for interventional cardiac treatment in the Gaza Strip, and the caseload of patients in critical condition has worsened under the COVID pandemic. Two Gaza-based doctors—Abdalraheem Said and Hany al-Faleet—are responsible for screening pediatric cardiac patients from the southern part of Gaza at the European Gaza Hospital.
“A major challenge for us is that we are not only responsible for ‘doing the medicine,’ but for helping patients cross borders for care,” said al-Faleet, who referred Mazen to his Israeli partners at Save a Child’s Heart in Holon, Israel.
Read More: JNS