First Lady airlifts patients with heart disease to Israel for treatment

Save A Child’s Heart (SACH) is an Israeli-based international, non-profit organization known worldwide for its commitment to saving lives by improving quality of cardiac care for children from developing countries and creating centres of medical competence in these countries.

SACH doctors and nurses also hold preoperative and follow-up cardiology clinics in Israel and abroad on a weekly basis.

SACH offers a comprehensive training programme within Israel for doctors and nurses from developing countries.

The organization had saved the lives of over 3,400 children from Africa, South America, Europe, Asia, and throughout the Middle East, by mending hearts, regardless of race, religion, gender, nationality, or financial status.

It therefore “contributes to a more peaceful and productive world, a happier, healthier world, and a better world for all children and their families”.

The First Lady maintains the strategic objective of complementing the efforts of His Excellency’s government in creating an environment conducive for addressing the needs and aspirations of the children of The Gambia, a statement by OSCF said.

OSCF, in achieving its strategic objective, is focusing on three programme areas, which are child protection, health series-prevention and care education, with emphasis on children with special needs.

In this regard, the OSCF stated, Her Excellency the First Lady had committed D2.4 million to send seven Gambian children to Save A Child’s Heart hospital in Israel.

In his remarks, Health Minister Omar Sey said “this is a difficult, rare and hard sponsor to get but thanks to the First Lady for her kind gesture in sponsoring the children”.

He thanked and prayed for the patients to come back healthy and make their families, the First Lady and the nation happy.

The Public Relations Officer at the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (EFSTH), Modou Lamin Jammeh, thanked the First Lady for “a great initiative”, saying “proper health care will be given to the patients” during their stay in Israel.

He added that the project had impacted greatly in the lives of many Gambians.

Agie Ceesay, parent to one of the patients, said they the parents “cannot thank the First Lady enough for the good work” she has done to them.

“Having a patient suffering from heart disease is a painful feeling; we know how it feels,” she said.

She thanked the First Lady the more on behalf of the parents of the patients, for they could not pay the First Lady for what she has done for them.

“We are very happy for what the First Lady has done for us, we always run from one pharmacy to the other looking for medicines,” said Haddijatou Ceesay, a 12-year-old patient.

She added: “We are hoping to go and get treated and also come back to make our parents and the First Lady happy.”