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830 Surgeries Launched
Qatar Charity, in collaboration with the Syrian Ministry of Health, launched the 'Calamity Relief Drive' initiative in Syria on Sunday to carry out more than 830 specialized surgeries, including open-heart surgeries for children, cochlear implants, and cataract removal surgeries, across Damascus, Homs, Hama, Aleppo, and Idlib.
Al-Modon quoted campaign supervisor Dr. Mahmoud Abdul-Latif Al-Sufi saying the current phase aims to perform between 35 and 40 pediatric heart surgeries distributed between Damascus and Homs, with patient selection based on medical criteria that account for priority and severity.
In Damascus, the Children's Heart Surgery Hospital director of the radiology department, Dr. Nada Al-Sabagh, told Al-Modon that the hospital is the only center specialized in pediatric heart surgery and provides services free of charge.
The initiative’s launch was also described by Al-Araby Al-Jadeed as taking place at the University Heart Surgery Center in Damascus, where Amer Al-Sayed Ali Mahmoud Al-Masri watched his child enter the operating room for a dilation of the pulmonary artery about ten minutes earlier.
Al-Modon reported that the campaign is part of the outputs of Qatar Charity’s '27th Night Challenge' campaign during Ramadan last year, which raised more than 40 million Qatari riyals.
Families Describe Costs
Amer Al-Sayed Ali Mahmoud Al-Masri, a teacher from Tal Kalakh in Homs Governorate, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that doctors stressed the necessity of widening his child’s pulmonary artery after the condition was detected when he was four years old.
He said, “They asked me for about $1,200, and I am a civil servant and a teacher, and employees’ salaries do not allow securing this amount,” and added that after registering his child in the hospital’s medical campaign, the family waited about a month and a half for the intervention date.
Al-Araby Al-Jadeed also followed Rooh Mohammed Al-Shaikh, a three-year-and-eight-month-old girl from rural Homs, whose family registered her in the campaign about two months ago and had her as number 32 on the list before receiving a call to determine the intervention date.
Her father, Mohammed Al-Shaikh, said, “God granted me Rooh after waiting 18 years; the cost of the treatment was beyond my means,” and added, “If it weren’t for this campaign, I would not have been able to treat my daughter.”
The article said the initiative includes open-heart surgeries, repair of congenital heart defects in children, cochlear implants, cataract removal, and interventions to treat arterial and valve stenosis and cardiac holes, with participating centers receiving patients from various Syrian provinces.
Qatar Support and Scope
Al-Araby Al-Jadeed said the campaign was launched today, Sunday, in the presence of the State of Qatar’s ambassador to Damascus, Khalifa bin Abdullah Al-Mahmoud, the director of Qatar Charity, Essam Dhabab, and the director of Damascus Health, Wael Dagmash, from Al-Mowassat Hospital in Damascus.
“Amer Al-Sayed Ali Mahmoud Al-Masri and his wife stood near the operating room at the University Heart Surgery Center in Damascus, while their child, born in 2020, had just gone in about ten minutes earlier for a dilation of the pulmonary artery”
The same report said the initiative includes 750 cataract surgeries (with the provision of eyeglasses), as well as 70 pediatric heart defect surgeries, 10 open-heart surgeries, and six cochlear implant surgeries.
Al-Araby Al-Jadeed quoted Wael Dagmash saying the surgeries “will be carried out by Syrian doctors, whether from staff working inside the hospitals or Syrian doctors residing in the diaspora,” and added that Qatari support includes securing the necessary medical consumables to carry out the operations.
In parallel, Al-Modon described the campaign as aiming not only to provide treatment but also to strengthen cooperation between Syrian and Qatari medical staff and exchange expertise, contributing to the development of health service levels.
Al-Jazeera Net and خاص both described the initiative as 'Daf'at Balaa'/'Dafaa Balaa' in cooperation with the Syrian Ministry of Health, with targeted medical lists in Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, Hama, and Idlib and a link to the '27th Night Challenge' campaign that raised donations exceeding 40 million Qatari riyals.
