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The Save a Child’s Heart program was established to provide heart surgery to
indigent children from developing countries who don’t have access to cardiac
surgeons and hospitals where they can be properly diagnosed and treated for
their heart problems.
The SACH doctors provide diagnosis, surgery and follow-up care, free of charge,
for children with heart defects or heart disease who are in desperate need of
cardiac treatment and would perish without it. SACH receives a list of children
in need of heart treatment and their medical history and reviews the
information before traveling to the country for a more thorough medical
examination.
At least once a year, a three-member team consisting of a cardiac surgeon, a
pediatric cardiologist, and a pediatric intensive care specialist travel to the
partner country to examine the potential patients. The diagnostic abilities of
the team and their combined expertise enables them to categorize and
prioritize the long list of children and decide which patients can be scheduled
for care in Israel at a later date.
During some trips, the SACH team performs surgery on children if the local
conditions and equipment allow. In February of 2009, for instance, a SACH team
traveled to Ethiopia for a ten-day teaching seminar which included 16 pediatric
surgeries. It is SACH's goal to help raise the medical standards in the partner
countries in order to make possible these cardiac surgeries be performed
locally and by local doctors in the future.
The SACH team, while visiting the partner country, also conducts training
seminars and lectures in all areas of cardiac care for doctors and nurses. In
addition, local physicians are trained to continue the care of patients in
the SACH team’s absence and become SACH partners for future referrals. The
partner conducts their own follow-up examinations on patients who received
medical treatment at Wolfson Hospital and have returned home.
Today, SACH is the largest humanitarian program of its kind, providing life
saving operations to children from all over the world, free of charge.
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| The Edith Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, Israel is the home of the Save a
Child's Heart Program. |
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| Find out about the SACH Outreach Program, and the potential to save many more
children's lives. |
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| The SACH hostel is a temporary home to hundreds of children who come to Israel
from around the world to undergo medical treatment. |
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