Thursday Dec 12, 2024
Friday, 17 December 2021 02:39 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The Rotary Club of Colombo West (RCCW) has signed an MOU with the Ministry of Health to send 75 children suffering from complicated heart ailments to India for surgery. The children will be accompanied by one of their parents, and the surgery will be performed at Amrita Hospital in Kochi. The agreement was signed after receiving Cabinet approval.
The MOU also entails sending paediatric heart surgeons and nurses for training to India. Thirty nurses from Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children will be sent to get training to assist doctors in the complicated surgery. Three paediatric heart surgeons will also have the opportunity to receive training to perform complicated paediatric heart surgery.
The MOU also covers two doctors from Amrita Hospital for a two-day workshop for gynaecologists and radiologists to identify heart ailments when the baby is in the womb, so that complications can be avoided.
During the last five years, RCCW has sponsored more than 50 children for heart surgery in leading private hospitals here as well as in India. Every year 3,000 children are born with congenital heart disease in Sri Lanka. However, only around 1,000 of them have the opportunity to get operated due to the shortage of paediatric cardiac surgeons and the lack of facilities in Government hospitals.