1,500 Romanian children born with heart defects need operations every year to save their lives. In Romania. Three hospitals in Romania can operate a little over 500. One of these hospitals is the Marie Curie Hospital in Bucharest. Our association invested over 2 million USD to build and furnish the Cardiac Surgery Unit here and the first operation was done in 2013. We are proud that our unit, which is also the youngest, can now save around 200 children every year, meaning 30-40% of the children operated in Romania.
Globalworth Foundation has joined the efforts of the Children’s Heart Association to develop pediatric cardiovascular surgery centres in three major Romanian cities: Bucharest, Iasi and Timisoara. This year, with the support of Globalworth Foundation, the humanitarian medical missions programme initiated at the Marie Curie Hospital in Bucharest will be extended to the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases centres in Iasi and Timisoara.
Through the investment of 300,000 euros over the next three years, Globalworth Foundation will fund medical missions allowing specialist international doctors to travel to Romania to operate on children with heart malformations and to train Romanian doctors in their first years of residency. Each medical mission will bring four foreign specialists to Romania who, together with their Romanian colleagues, will be able to perform operations on 15-20 children with heart disease.
The paediatric cardiovascular surgery development programme is carried out in a partnership with the Children’s Heart Association, the Ministry of Health of Romania, the Bambini Cardiopatici nel Mondo Association and the San Donato Clinic in Milan.
The programme, which began in 2013, includes monthly medical missions attended by experienced specialists from abroad, as well as training courses in Bucharest and Milan for Romanian doctors and assistants. Four foreign doctors – a cardiac surgeon, an interventional cardiologist and two specialists in anesthesia and intensive care – take part in the medical missions which themselves present excellent practical training opportunities for colleagues in Bucharest, Iasi and Timisoara.