Karachi:Over a hundred members of civil society participated in a golf tournament in Karachi on Sunday to support the Aga Khan University’s efforts to expand access to surgeries and procedures for children born with congenital heart defects, CHD, commonly known as ‘holes in the heart’.
Every year there are an estimated 60,000 babies born in Pakistan with CHD with a third requiring immediate life-saving surgery. Two-month-old Haseeb Ahmed, is one of the children to benefit from treatment sponsored through the University’s Mending Kids’ Hearts Campaign.
Haseeb, one of a family of seven, was born with CHD, with a hole in the heart associated with the inversion of two arteries of the heart, which affected his breathing and prevented him from feeding normally. Haseeb’s parents were extremely concerned about his low weight and how he used to turn blue while crying.
After visiting a public-sector hospital for treatment, Haseeb was referred to the cardiac care specialists at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) in Karachi. A complication with Haseeb’s lungs meant that the condition would have been inoperable within the next few weeks. Fortunately, he was operated at once at the AKUH which waived 95 per cent of the cost of the treatment which was approximately PKR 1 million. The average cost of treating a child for CHD is PKR 500,000.
Haseeb’s parents were one of the invitees to the tournament which saw the Siddiqsons team comprising Abdul Rahim Rafi, Abdul Rehman Badar, Junaid Irfan and Waleed Chachar win with a gross score of 57 on the championship course.
To date, PKR 570 million in funds has been spent to provide life-saving and life-enhancing treatment to over 2,300 children from financially disadvantaged backgrounds. “These surgeries and procedures represent the difference between a limited life, beset by fear of ill-health, and the ability for a child to achieve his or her full potential,” said Dr Nadeem Aslam, a cardiologist at AKUH.
Dr Aslam stated that specialists from the hospital were working to reach even more children suffering from CHD by conducting outreach camps across Sindh. Over 2019, AKUH’s team of cardiologists, sonographers and surgeons travelled to Gambat, Tando Adam and Quetta and found over 370 cases of CHD who were referred for treatment to the Karachi-based hospital.
The AKUH’s CHD programme is a part of national and international cardiac registries that set benchmarks for performance in the field with a view to providing world-class care. It is the only programme in the country to be both accredited by Joint Commission International (JCI) and recognised by the International Quality Improvement Collaborative (IQIC).
The Mending Kids’ Hearts campaign has been working since 2016 to raise both awareness of paediatric CHD and funds to support patients through the AKUH Patient Welfare Programme. This is the ninth golf tournament to be organized under the campaign.
The campaign is a part of the University’s efforts to achieve targets under goal 3 of the global sustainable development goals which seek to end preventable causes of death in children by 2030.