KABUL (PAN): A renowned American surgeon arrived in Kabul today to perform open-heart operations at the French Medical Institute for Children (FMIC). On a three-day visit to this capital city, Dr Jan M. Quaegebeur is the first US pediatric cardiac specialist to work in Afghanistan.
He would assess the possibility for further American specialists to work at the French Medical Institute for Children, one of the most advanced hospitals in the war-torn country, the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) said on Friday.
Currently professor of surgery at the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and Director of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at the New York Presbyterian Hospitals Congenital Heart Centre, Dr Quaegebeur is well known in the medical world for having developed the arterial switch – a procedure performed on newborn babies to enable them to undergo open-heart surgery.
He would operate on children with severe heart defects, the AKDN said in a press statement. Fifteen-year-old Abdul and four-year-old Said have congenital heart defects which can only be cured by advanced surgical techniques that until recently were not available in Afghanistan.
Both children suffer from tetralogy of Fallot, a deformation of the heart which leads to a shortage of oxygen in the blood. In infants and babies the ailment gives their skin a bluish colour. They are often called blue babies.
Dr Quaegebeur is president of Surgeons of Hope, the US sister organisation of La Chane de lEspoir, a French medical charity. La Chaine de lEspoir built the French Medical Institute for Children, an 85-bed hospital which opened in Kabul in 2005. It is managed by the Aga Khan Development Network, while La Chaine de lEspoir is in charge of medical coordination.
Ismailimail 