Would you like to help Suubi Trust support Heart Surgery at Hope Ward?
We need to raise £1,000 this month to transport a heat exchanger to Kampala, in time for the next set of heart surgeries in October.
It’s very easy to make a one off contribution; you can send us a cheque, transfer funds directly to our bank or use your credit card online through our secure link at CAF Bank. You can even do this anonymously, though using Gift Aid will increase your contribution by 28%.
You will find details of how to give at our website here.
Heart Surgery at Hope Ward.
In April this year Hope Ward performed the first two heart surgeries in Uganda.
The significance of these first open heart surgeries is not only that patients who have been awaiting this procedure can now be treated within their own country, but that a benchmark has been established. International Hospital Kampala has been working steadily over the past number of years to reach the standards necessary to perform such high level surgery.
The operations were performed by a team of 14 professionals, led by Dr Clement Akomea Agyin, a consultant cardiac surgeon, currently working in St Anthony’s Hospital London and perfusionist Mr John Francis Nelson. Others in the medical team are Ugandan nationals living and working in Kampala.
In making this happen Hope Ward has not just brought benefit to the individual patients, but has started to increase the capacity of the medical profession in Uganda thus helping to close the gap between third world and first world medicine.
We are now making final arrangements for another 5 surgeries in October.
Each operation costs about £4,000; at the end of June almost £20,000 was raised at a charity concert in Kampala; just over £17,000 of this came from one sponsor, Hwan Sung Medical Charity Services.
In the last few weeks Morriston Hospital, Swansea, has generously donated a Heat Exchanger worth about £20,000. This is a combined heater/cooler unit that is used during open heart surgery to cool the patient’s blood and therefore the patient down to 28 deg C. It then warms up the patient to 37 deg before coming off the cardiopulmonary bypass. Our thanks to Morriston and Mr Meakin, Chief Perfusionist at that hospital.
Please consider helping.
Kind regards,
Kevin.
Chairman: Suubi Trust.
