An 11-year-old boy from the Gaza Strip, Mazen, this month became the 6,000th child saved by the Israeli humanitarian organization Save a Child's Heart (SACH) with support from the German foundation BILD hilft e.V. Ein Herz für Kinder.

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Shortly after Mazen was born, doctors in Gaza diagnosed him with a complicated congenital heart condition that would require multiple medical procedures. As Mazen grew older, he suffered difficulty breathing. To survive, he needed emergency surgery.

There are no centers for interventional cardiac treatment in the Gaza Strip, and the caseload of patients in critical condition has worsened under the COVID pandemic.

Two Gaza-based doctors, Abdalraheem Said and Hany Al Faleet, are responsible for screening all Gazan pediatric cardiac patients from the southern part of Gaza at the European Gaza Hospital.

"A major challenge for us is that we are not only responsible for 'doing the medicine,' but for helping patients cross borders for care," said Al Faleet, who referred Mazen to his Israeli partners at Save a Child's Heart in Holon, Israel.

In Israel, Mazen was treated at the SACH International Pediatric Cardiac Care Center at the new Sylvan Adams Children's Hospital at Wolfson Medical Center. Upon arrival, Mazen was examined by Dr. Alona Raucher Sternfeld, director of Pediatric Cardiology, and then treated in the center's catheterization lab by Dr. Sagi Assa, aead of the Interventional Pediatric Cardiac Care Unit.

Assa and his team are pioneering the use of closure devices that enable complex cardiac catheterization procedures to close holes in hearts without any need for open heart surgery. The SACH center and the Pediatric Cardiac Care Center are the only medical institutions in the region currently using this technique on cases such as Mazen's.

The mission of Save a Child's Heart is to improve pediatric cardiac care in developing countries around the world through surgery, medical missions, and medical training. SACH has saved the lives of 6,000 children from 63 countries, 50% of whom are Palestinian children from Gaza and the West Bank.

Each week, SACH holds a weekly cardiology clinic for Palestinian children at its facilities in Holon. In 2018, SACH received the UN Population Award in recognition of its role in helping transform pediatric cardiac care in Africa.

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Bahraini Ambassador to Israel Khaled Yousif al-Jalahma visited an Israeli cardiac clinic last week, where children from all over the world, including the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian Authority, are treated.

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Founded by Israeli-American Dr. Ami Cohen, Save a Child's Heart is an international non-profit organization with the mission of bringing life-saving cardiac care to children in need worldwide. Based at the new Sylvan Adams Children's Hospital in Holon, it provides where life-saving heart treatments to hundreds of children annually.

After his visit, Jalahma said, "We will examine humanitarian cooperation between Israel and Bahrain for the first time" since the signing of the Abraham Accords.

The ambassador also met with the Chairman of Save a Child's Heart, Yoram Cohen, and its Executive Director Simon Fisher, to discuss future humanitarian cooperation between the two countries.

At the end of the meeting, Jalahma toured the hospital, where he met the medical team, including three Palestinian doctors from Gaza and two other doctors from Zambia and Ethiopia who are taking part in the Save a Child's Heart training program.

The visit ended with a touching meeting of the ambassador with dozens of children from Iraq, Myanmar, Zambia, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Nigeria, who had undergone life-saving medical care in Israel.

"I hear a lot about the humanitarian activity of Save a Child's Heart, and I am very happy to be here today to see the work firsthand," Jalahma said. "I hope that this is the beginning of a very fruitful relationship between Bahrain and Israel in the medical field. I have heard of the work you do across the world. Working with you has become possible because of the Abraham Accords and we look to build on this. These kinds of programs are what will make our world a better place."

Fisher concurred: "We are excited to meet the ambassador and introduce him to Israeli humanitarian activities for children with heart disease from around the world out of a genuine desire and faith to work for a better world.
"The Abraham Accords have opened up many opportunities for expanding the organization's activities in Arab countries and Africa, and we hope that fruitful collaborations will be created as a result in order to save the lives of more children," he said.

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