ASWAN – Egyptian-British heart surgeon, Sir Magdi Yacoubi, runs an unusual hospital that treats less privileged African patients free of charge.
The world-renowned Egyptian heart surgeon, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his inimitable and pioneering heart surgery, founded the Magdi Yacoubi Heart Foundation (MYF) in 2008 in Upper Egypt on the banks of the Nile River. What makes the MYF unique is that it treats not only Egypt’s less privileged but also gives life-giving surgery to Africa’s poor for free.
Heart disease accounts for one-fifth of deaths in Egypt that has a population of 90 million where up to 200 000 people lose their lives yearly to heart disease.
MYF is run as a charity, funded by Good Samaritans, because the cost of drugs, and the resultant heart surgery, is prohibitive and beyond the reach of many Africans.
Valve replacement for one patient costs 32 000 Egyptian pounds (US$5 700) while open-heart surgery costs 10 000 Egyptian pounds (US$1 784). But some procedures could cost as much as 120 000 Egyptian pounds (US$16 000), an amount far beyond what the heads of many households earn in a year.
Forty doctors and surgeons and an auxiliary staff complement of 200 employees man the centre. Since its inauguration, it has performed over 6 000 surgeries, among them open-heart surgeries and catherisations, while up to 15 000 patients, among them Nile Basin African countries, are treated on an outpatient basis.
Recently, the Egyptian government sponsored a group of 28 senior editors and radio producers – from across Africa – to acquaint themselves with political, economic and social developments in Egypt.
During the visit to MYF in Aswan, 900 kilometres outside Cairo, New Era learnt that the city was chosen for the world-class heart centre because it had the least cardiovascular services particularly for the poor.
Zeina Tawakol, the Director of Operations at the cardiovascular hospital, upon enquiry said: “The centre has 60 beds. We offer all sorts of heart surgery and heart catherisations. We offer the most difficult (heart) surgeries that are not offered elsewhere. We operate on more than 850 patients annually with more than 2 000 catherisations.” Catherisation pertains to the insertion of a catheter into the heart.
“Our African programme is in collaboration with our sister charity in the UK called the ‘Chain of Hope’. We operated on more than 30 (African) patients since the start of the centre, patients come from countries such as; Ethiopia, the Gambia, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Comorian Islands,” decreed the operations director.
Though the cardiovascular centre has yet to receive official requests for assistance from Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola and Botswana, she asserted, “We are more than happy to consider patients from those countries if we receive any requests (for treatment).”
Citing a recent World Health Organistion (WHO) report on cardiovascular disease (CVD), she stressed that the malady annually and globally kills almost 21 million and worldwide it is the leading cause of death and disability.
Approximately 80 percent of CVD-related deaths occur in developing countries. The prevalence of CVD risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, smoking and obesity continues to rise at an alarming rate.
Rheumatic heart disease continues to be a significant cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in many parts of the land of the majestic Pharaohs.
Rheumatic heart disease is common in impoverished, poorly ventilated areas and is an inflammatory disease that usually affects children aged 5 to 15 and it damages the heart valves.
“In addition, approximately 21 000 infants are born with congenital heart defects every year, the majority of whom need (medical) interventions. Unfortunately, the existing (medical) facilities can only provide service for a limited number,” stressed Tawakol.
“From a socio-economic perspective, the pluralistic health care system in Egypt with health care insurance covering less than 60 percent of the population offers mostly modest services,” she noted.
Taking into consideration the fact that tertiary cardiovascular services were practically non-existent in Upper Egypt, spanning from Assiut to Egypt’s borders with Sudan populated by 10 million inhabitants, the heart centre was founded with the mission to offer state-of-the-art, free of charge medical services to all African patients, regardless of their race, religion, gender and social status.