By Kuda Pembere
Amid an annual caseload of 4,500 Zimbabwean children born with heart diseases, the country has resumed open-heart surgeries after a five-year hiatus, with a week-long medical camp at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals.
With the last medical camp for open-heart surgeries conducted in 2018, the Gift of Life International and local surgeons are now operating on 10 children under the age of 14. The medical camp was facilitated by the Rotary Club of Harare Central.
This is our inaugural camp with the visiting team from Egypt, The University of Cairo. This is a camp for congenital cardiac surgery, facilitated by Gift of Life International in collaboration with Rotarians, Harare Central. And I must say, we are happy to hold this camp. We last held a camp for children in July 2018,” Parirenyatwa’s Head of Cardiology, Dr. Simukayi Machawira, told journalists on Tuesday.
“So far, we’ve successfully held the camp. We’ve operated on four children, and we hope to operate on at least six more to complete this camp on Friday.”
With government support amounting to US$650,000, Dr. Machawira emphasized the need for further resources, including private sector involvement.
“What we really need is more support from the government, industry, and the private sector to make this program sustainable,” he said.
“It is quite capital-intensive, and the government has done its part in injecting the capital. We’ve also received support from the National Oil and Infrastructure Company of Zimbabwe, and we hope other industry players will come forward to make this a success.”
Dr. Machawira noted that this was Zimbabwe’s first collaboration for open-heart surgery with an African university, with plans to send Zimbabwean doctors on internships to Egypt.
“I am happy to say this is the first partnership we’ve had with an African country in open-heart surgery. We’ve invited teams from Asia and Europe, but we’ve never collaborated with another African country. In terms of South-South partnerships, this is a major milestone,” he explained.
“The University of Cairo, where our colleague Professor Hesham Shawky works, can sometimes perform five or more congenital cardiac surgeries in a single day. Here, we’re struggling to do two or, if we’re lucky, three.”
Dr. Machawira expressed hope that by nurturing this partnership, Zimbabwe could become more self-sufficient in cardiac surgery. “We will gain a lot by sending our junior doctors, or even senior staff on attachment in these units, and the Egyptian team will continue visiting. This year marks our first collaboration, but hopefully, next year we can host two camps, and eventually, within five to six years.
