Specialists from Dubai Health Authority and a visiting team from Italy will perform free life-saving surgeries for children this week, as part of the DHA’s ongoing campaign to alleviate the suffering of children and young adults with heart problems.

DHA cardiologists and visiting doctors from San Donato Hospital in Milan, will perform 30 cardiac procedures - 18 open heart surgeries and 12 catherisation procedures- for children between the ages of one week to 18 years, a statement from the Authority said.

The programme is part of a humanitarian initiative by the DHA, which will cover the costs for the Emiratis, and the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Humanitarian and Charity Establishment, which will cover the costs for expatriates.

The children are from various nationalities including UAE nationals, Omanis, Syrians, Yemeni, Pakistanis, Bangladeshi and children from African countries, the statement said.

Dr Obaid Al Jassim, a consultant cardiac surgeon and head of the cardiothoracic surgery department at Dubai Hospital, said: “This programme to conduct free heart surgeries started in October 2008 and as part of this humanitarian initiative, so far, we have conducted 250 surgeries and caterisation procedures for children with congenital heart disease, from newborns to 19 years.”

“The workshops were conducted in collaboration with Swedish and Italian teams.”

In June 2011, the visiting doctors from San Donato Hospital in Milan and specialists from the DHA performed an extremely complicated life-saving surgery, known as ‘arterial switch’ on a 12-day-old baby weighing 3.2 kilos.

The team performed their first arterial switch operation in March 2011. The operation marked the beginning of such a complex paediatric operation to be performed in the Emirate, Al Jassim said. – TradeArabia News Service