Ethiopia Cardiac Mission

A regional mission to Jimma to provide cardiac surgeries to 8 to 10 children suffering from congenital heart disease, specifically Patent Ductus Arteriosus(PDA).

Lead Surgeons: Dr. Yayu Mekonnen, Children’s Heart Fund, Addis Ababa

The Need

There is no service for children with congenital heart disease who require surgery in the Jimma area. The team will travel to Jimma from Addis Ababa with the intention to provide surgery and save these children's lives, while training the local surgeons to be able to eventually do these procedures, over several missions. Operating on children with Patent Ductus Arteriosus is a manageable goal as no perfusion will be required. More trips to other regions will be planned once the Jimma program is in place and self-sufficient. The procedures will be performed in the premises of Jimma University Specialized Hospital.

Program Details

Mending Kids is a long standing partner of the Children’s Heart Fund in Ethiopia and has provided extensive support to Dr. Yayu Mekkonen, the first fully trained pediatric cardiac surgeon in the country. Having successfully graduated from a program in Israel through the Save A Child’s Heart organization and a fellowship at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, Dr. Mekkonen is ready and empowered to lead his first regional mission to Jimmaa. Jimmaa, is the largest city in southwestern Oromia Region in Ethiopia and children there currently have no access to cardiac surgical care. On this maiden mission, Dr. Mekkonen will plan to train local doctors and save 8 to 10 lives in the process. In keeping with our mission to support surgeons in their quest for self-sustainment and with the current pandemic and international deployments restricted, Mending Kids is sponsoring this life-saving initiative.

Travel Details

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Progress And Goals

Since 2010, Mending Kids has led 6 missions to Ethiopia and provided 189 kids with open heart surgeries. The goal was to see the establishment of a local team that could pick up where the visiting team left off and mend children between missions. Dr. Yayu Mekonnen and his team epitomize all the efforts that Mending Kids and other organizations have invested in seeing this happen. The goals and scope of the mission are entirely manageable and the deployment of this mission will mark a new chapter in cardiac care in Ethiopia.

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