In many developing countries across the world, congenital heart disease affects the poorest the most. In most cases, patients die due to the high cost of treatment associated with the disease. Children are the worst affected.
In Bangladesh, the story is similar. Many children are said to have been affected with heart related problems – and with a child population of approximately 60 million – poverty is a very real socio-economic issue in the country.
For a successful heart surgery in Bangladesh, the price is around $2,000 to $5,000. Meanwhile, in the country, the annual income of the majority of people is less than $1,000. Therefore, in the absence of a miracle donation by a charity group, or benevolent individuals, many children with heart disease simply suffer and die.
Apart from the financial problem facing many patients, there is also another problem with heart surgery in Bangladesh. Open-heart surgery on children who some are just a couple of weeks old, is a complicated procedure only few surgeons can do. Fewer are willing to perform such operations.
“They need expensive treatment but they can’t afford it by themselves and most of them die due to a lack of money and facilities. Eighty percent of them are below the poverty line,” a cardiologist at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Nurun Fatema said. The CMH is located in the capital, Dhaka.
At the CMH hospital, recent studies conducted showed that of 1,000 babies born, 25 had congenital heart disease. This rate is around three times that of Western countries. This makes it difficult in terms of personnel, facilities and funds, to deal with the disease.
But now, the situation is changing for the better. A group of charities have come together to help save many children’s lives. Since 2013, charity group Little Hearts, has raised more than $2M for heart surgeries on children in Bangladesh. Other developing countries such as Yemen, Sudan, Tanzania and Mauritania, where remedies for congenital heart disease are lacking (or absent), have also benefited from the Little Hearts initiative.
Another charity organization, Muntada Aid, has also been making the effort since 2013 to stop the disease from killing children. The group has resourced hospitals in Bangladesh to carry out a record 94 heart surgeries in the country. These surgeries were performed free of charge for patients. In addition, the charity has also been sending doctors and nurses from developing countries to training courses on heart surgeries, in Turkey. Currently, the organization is planning to send some doctors and nurses from Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia; there they can be trained to help save the lives of more children back home.
The charity has also resourced Fatema, the cardiologist at the CMH, to perform free heart surgeries for patients using some procedures, which are less invasive than open heart surgery. With a catheter running from the groin, and large X-ray monitors, Fatema uses a guide wire to get to the heart, inject dye to show where the blood is trapped or leaking, blow up balloons to open valves, and insert stents to fix them.
However, it is a process not without risk. Few specialists can perform such an operation. But notwithstanding on the risk factors, the situation in Bangladesh is gradually improving due to the hard work of the charities, and sacrifice made by the country’s cardiac surgeons.
A cardiac surgeon at the CMH, Mohammed Abdul Hannan, said Bangladesh started performing heart operations in 1981, and that for the past 15 years, the standard has gone up to the extent that adult cardiac surgery patients now need not go abroad. Previously, cardiac surgeons were unable to perform surgery on adults, and they had to be sent abroad for such operations.
Muntada Aid spokesman, Kabir Miah said their aim is to train local staff to take over the initiative they have built, so that the charities could leave Bangladesh to other countries that need similar help.
Little Hearts also said they are still recruiting doctors and nurses from Jordan, the Philippines, India and Saudi Arabia, amongst others, to help countries with heart surgery difficulties. These recruited doctors and nurses are volunteers who only wish to provide humanitarian assistance to those in need.
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