The project has saved the lives of 40 Indonesian children with congenital heart defects and helped them kickstart a new life.
Around 40 children with congenital heart defects have been saved through Qatar Red Crescent Society [QRCS]’s “Little Hearts” project in Indonesia, the organisation announced.
The $105,591 project was launched earlier this year with the goal of treating in-need children with congenital heart defects, including ventricular septal defects [VSD] and patent ductus arteriosus [PDA].
The children were provided with treatments that involve performing catheterisations at the National Cardiac Center Harapan Kita [NCCHK] in Jakarta, essentially saving their lives.
Held in cooperation with the Indonesian Red Cross Society [PMI] and Indonesia’s Ministry of Health [MOH], the Little Hearts project has successfully achieved its goal with the help of three groups of 16 specialised doctors and consultants covering a range of specialties from pediatric cardiology, diagnostic non-invasive cardiology to anesthesia.
The Qatar-based charity organisation said that over the span of five months, ventricular septal defect (VSD) and patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) closure catheterisations were performed on children to help them start a new and healthy life.
Read also: Qatar’s ‘Little Hearts’ project saves 15 children in Indonesia.
QRCS has been praised for achieving its goal in less than five months as well as providing the participating doctors with expertise to perform such interventions.
As a form of psychological support to fasten their recovery process, the organisation distributed gifts and toys to recovering children in Indonesia.
The project comes as a response to statistics that highlight a worrying number of congenital heart diseases (CHD) in Indonesia, which is thought to be on the rise. The average number of born-alive infants with CHD is nine out of 1,000.
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The “Little Hearts” project, which is the first to be implemented in Indonesia, is part of the Medical Convoys program.
It includes providing treatment for those in need, performing surgeries in various medical specialisations, providing medical supplies and surgical equipment, as well as training medical professionals.
The programme has also treated over 14,000 patients in eight countries over the past three years alone, QRCS said.
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