Qatar-Supported Cardiac Camp Treats 110 Yemeni Children in Taiz as Local Center Expands

One hundred ten children from different parts of Yemen received free treatment for heart conditions at the Cardiac and Vascular Diseases and Kidney Transplant Center in Taiz between May 16 and 21. The Catheterization and Complex Paediatric Cardiac Surgery Camp performed the procedures with teams from Qatar’s Sidra Medicine and consultant doctors from across Yemen.

Qatar Charity and the Qatar Red Crescent supported the camp.

Ten-year-old Noor Majid from Yemen underwent surgery for an atrial septal defect, a condition she has had since birth that caused constant breathing problems and chronic exhaustion. She was among the patients treated during the camp. A visitor asked if she could take Noor’s photograph; the girl smiled, adjusted her position in the hospital bed, and posed.

Professor Abudar al-Ganadi, who has headed the center since its founding in July 2021, said the camp was the largest medical effort of its kind in Yemen. “This is the largest medical camp in the country where complex operations of this kind are performed in this number and within such a critical period of time,” he told Al Jazeera.

Since opening, the center has performed 1,450 open-heart surgeries, 164 kidney transplants, nearly 4,000 vascular operations, 4,340 catheterization procedures, and 1,500 urology operations.

Last month it completed its first three liver transplants. Professor al-Ganadi said results for the liver program would be released only after 10 and then 50 transplants, following the same approach used for the cardiac program. Dr Nader al-Hammadi, a resident physician in the cardiovascular surgery unit, said an open-heart operation costs $5,000 at the Taiz center, with patients paying $2,000 and benefactors covering the rest.