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The Jerusalem Post, February 8, 2002, page A7
One heart at a time
By Megan Goldin
When Ilana Sinai heard about a charity that arranges free heart surgery for
Palestinian children, she immediately thought of the Palestinian friend Ana’s
sons, who suffer from heart defects.
Sinai telephoned the Save a Child’s Heart charity, arranged for doctors to
examine Ana’s 11 and 18-year old sons, and took the day off work to drive the
family to a Holon hospital, there they all waited anxiously for the doctor’s
diagnosis.
Friendship between Sinai and Ana, a Palestinian mother of 13 from the Balata
refugee camp in the West Bank, is virtually unheard of. Sinai lives on a nearby
settlement.
But not in the wards and intensive care units of Wolfson Hospital in Holon,
where cardiologists have operated on at least 140 Palestinians children to
correct congenital heart defects.
Save a Child’s Heart pays for the operations, which cost about $10,000, through
donations from the government, American Jews, Christian charities, and
international charities for children. The doctors and nurses give their time
for free.
"It’s an island of insanity in a world of insanity," said cardiologist Dr. Uri
Katz as he put his stethoscope over the heart of Ana’s younger son, Muhammad.
In the pediatric intensive care ward, Israeli and Palestinian parents comfort
each other as they sit by the beds of their babies, who lie motionless,
connected to intravenous tubes, monitors, and oxygen masks.
On one bed lies five-month old Sujud a baby girl from Khan Yunis in the
southern Gaza Strip, who needs surgery to replace a heart valve and repair a
hole in one of the chambers of her heart.
The hospital is a world away from Khan Yunis, where the baby’s sleep is often
disturbed by gunfire between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli soldiers.
For the baby’s mother, Khitam, on her first visit to the Jewish state, Israel
is an alien world. "I was afraid coming here," said Khitam, standing by her
baby’s bedside, her black veil starkly contrasting with the antiseptic
whiteness of the intensive care unit. Khitam is uncomfortable enough about
being in Israel to ask for her family name to be withheld.
She praises the treatment of her child, which goes against the grain, because
Palestinians often complain that Israel military checkpoints in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip prevent Palestinian ambulances from reaching hospitals.
"I heard about Israelis in the news, on the television," said Khitam. "I
thought they did not have a heart, [But] the way they behaved to my child has
changed my whole attitude. They are very compassionate."
Nearby, Ziad Yousef Awadi holds a vigil by the bed of his 11-month-old son, who
has spent most of his life in Wolfson’s ICU ward and has undergone six open
heart surgeries.
Awadi has special permission to cross through dozens of military checkpoints
between his village near the West Bank city of Hebron to Holon, which he does
every day, traveling for a total of six hours to reach his son’s bedside.
But Awadi is not bitter and readily strikes up a conversation with a religious
Jewish woman whose child is also in the ICU ward. They are two people whose
paths would not cross under normal circumstances.
Awadi believes the Save a Child’s Heart program does more than repair the
hearts of Palestinian children.
"It helps peace. It really does help peace," said the Palestinian father, who
has been unable to work for the past nine months because his son’s illness and
the ongoing violence.
Houri, the head of the pediatric ICU, has seen many friendships forged between
Israelis and Palestinians in the six years since the project began. He said and
Israeli woman once telephoned him for medical advice on behalf of a Palestinian
mother she had befriended while both children were in the intensive care ward.
"It improves relations," said Houri. "It’s like another drip in the ocean, but
a drop in the ocean is better than none."
Save a Child’s Heart has also treated some 500 children from Ethiopia, Nigeria,
Zanzibar, Moldova, China, and Vietnam who are flown to Israel at the charity’s
expense for surgery or are operated on by an Israeli medical team visiting
their home countries. The project was founded by Dr. Amram (Ami) Cohen, who
died last August while on a trip to Africa.
"We are simply doctors taking care of children," said Katz as he examines
Muhammad’s heart, telling him in broken Arabic to turn on to his side.
The doctors at Save a Child’s Heart say the children they see - many of whom
would die without treatment - have correctable heart problems which would
ordinarily never be treated in their home countries, where money and medical
resources are scarce.
Katz diagnosed Muhammad as having a narrow heart valve, a disorder he can cure
without open heart surgery, as the valve is still wide enough to be ballooned
open.
His older brother, Samir, who cannot study or work because of his illness, will
receive cardiac medication.
"We are not doing this to help the political situation," said Katz. "We are
doing it to help one child at a time, but we hope that it may bring some
normality."
(Reuter)
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