Italian Medical Delegation visits Duhok to Cure Congenital Heart Diseases children, from 17th Mar., till 24 Mar., 2012

Kurdistan Regional Government -IRAQ

Ministry of Health

Directorate General of Health-Duhok Governorate

Italian Medical Delegation visits to Duhok

17^th to 24^th March 2012

Directorate General of Health in Duhok in partnership with Heevi Nazadr for Children organization is pleased to receive the Italian medical team of paediatric cardiac surgeons and staff from San Donato Hospital - Milan. This visit is made under the patronage of His Excellency Nechirvan Barzani, KRG Government Nominated Prime Minister, the Italian Consulate in Erbil, with the generous support of the Italian Organizations (SIA and Bambini Cardiopatici nel Mondo A.I.C.I. ONLUS).  The team will perform surgical operations for children with congenital heart diseases for the first time at Azadi Cardiac Surgery Centre in Duhok. In addition, the team will provide on-service training for our staff working at the centre from 17^th to 24^th March 2012. 

The visits of the Italian teams to Duhok Governorate started in 2006 and since then annually one team is visiting Duhok to conduct diagnostic catheterization of children with congenital heart diseases and referring them to Italy for further treatment. This is the first time to conduct cardiac surgical operations in Duhok and during this visit it’s planned to perform around 30 surgical operations and interventions for carefully selected cases.  

The people of Duhok highly appreciate the relentless voluntary services provided by the Italian teams since 2006 and are charmed with their dedication and commitment to serve our children. The on-going work by Heevi Nazdar Organization in registering all children with congenital heart diseases in Kurdistan Region of Iraq is a great job indeed and provides baseline data on the magnitude of these diseases and facilitate for proper planning for their management.   

Looking forward to continue this kind of very fruitful humanitarian aid and assistance from our dear friends in Italy, hoping to realize our vision for Azadi Cardiac Centre to be able to ease the job of our friends and become a distinguished centre for treating children with congenital heart diseases in Kurdistan Region and Iraq. This will be a great achievement of our joint cooperation and the outcome of all those years and efforts done by our dear Italian friends.