Assiut University – Egypt
Assiut University Hospital (AUH) in the Upper Nile Region of Egypt is GoL NEO’s first Developing World Children’s Heart Surgery Center.
Dr. Ahmed Farouk, while a doctoral student at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, became a part of GoL NEO and friends of Jim Frame and Ken Fogle. From this friendship an idea was born.
Jim Frame connected GoL NEO and Dr. Farouk into a partnership with Medwish International to gather medical equipment over a 2-year period. Dr. Farouk then worked with his home university in Egypt to remodel part of their children’s hospital as a PICU/surgical site.
GoL NEO supported shipping of an entire surgical suite of equipment (valued at $800k+) to Egypt. In late 2009, Jim Frame attended the dedication of this new children’s heart surgery suite. He was presented with Assiut University’s Coat of Arms in recognition of his contributions to the children of Egypt.
International Children’s Heart Foundation’s (ICHF) first medical training trip to AUH took place in March, 2010 and consisted of 17 specialists originating from multiple countries between Pakistan and Vancouver, Canada. This first brigade provided successful heart surgeries for 14 children and started the teaching process at all levels. This brigade was entirely funded by GoL NEO and Assiut University.
Over the next 2 years, three additional training trips have generated incredible results. In January 2012, Dr. Farouk returned to Cleveland and reported that Assiut University’s Children’s Heart Surgery Center had performed 294 heart surgeries—41 of these were done with Dr. Novick’s training teams and 253 were done entirely by the Egyptian surgical team. In addition, over 300 catheterization procedures were performed. Currently, there are over 600 children and families in Egypt that consider “Professor Dr. Jim” to be a special angel.
Assiut Egypt Follow-up
To All,
Confirmation we are in Egypt with cargo container #2 from Med Wish International of Cleveland and our first partnership with LIFE for Relief and Development out of Michigan who covered the shipping part of this project. Hopefully we will be able to continue together in supporting Dr. Novick’s training teams for International Children’s Heart Foundation with another year of surgical team development at Assiut University in 2013. I will ask Dr. Ahmed for pictures of the container arriving in Asyut so we can post it on our site.
Despite the political turmoil within Egypt this program continues to do incredible work since dedication of the surgery suite in late 2009. Hopefully with the addition of a second surgical suite we will surpass a thousand children who have had successful open heart surgery or corrective catheter procedures, most by the Assiut team on their own, offering so many Egyptian children and their families the Gift of Life.
Ken
Gift of Life North East Ohio, Inc.
Rotary District 6630
Click here to read the news about the Medwish container reaching its destination in Egypt!