TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK DOHA
Qatar Charity (QC) organised a week-long medical camp in Bangladesh to treat nearly 90 children born with congenital heart diseases.The medical camp, which began on August 13 and will conclude on August 21, is staffed by a pediatric cardiology expert and an interventional catheter procedures consultant from the University of Texas in the United States. Other pediatric cardiologists, cardiac surgeons from Jordan and Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Qatar, an anesthesiologist from Ramallah hospitals, and many medical staff from Bangladesh are also present at the camp.Doctors perform the ‘device closure procedure’ on children with congenital heart diseases.Upon arrival, the medical staff began a series of examinations to determine which cases required surgery. Coordination was established with Bangladesh’s National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases to prepare a list of 100 to 150 patients with various types of malformations. “We are doing our best to provide essential treatment for all of the children, and hopefully, they will lead a better life,” said Professor Dr. Muhammad Numan, a pediatric cardiology expert and interventional catheter procedures consultant at the University of Texas. He said that a ‘device closure procedure’ was successfully completed for Tanzina Akhtar, a 17-year-old girl suffering from a large hole in the lower chamber of the heart. “Hundreds of children patients are not finding unoccupied beds in the hospital, which is very large and has hundreds of beds,” said Dr. Abdul Majeed, a health expert at Qatar Charity, adding that the critical situation indicates that a large number of children have congenital heart diseases.He stated that more funding is needed to improve the hospital’s facilities and capacity, and he urged philanthropists to provide this critical assistance.The families thanked the philanthropists in Qatar for easing the suffering of their children. “It was very difficult for me to bear the expenses of my child’s treatment,” said the father of an 8-year-old child, Sadia, who received the treatment at the camp, adding that “we got an opportunity to treat my child with the help of Qatar Charity.”“My daughter has been suffering from heart disease since birth, and we tried everything to get her better treatment, but all efforts were futile due to financial constraints,” Tanzina Akhter’s mother explained. She expressed gratitude to Qatar’s benefactors and Qatar Charity for providing appropriate treatment for her daughter.It is worth noting that this is the country’s second medical camp of its kind. At the first medical camp, 31 children received the necessary medical care for their congenital heart diseases.
