Rotary Club of Muyenga sponsors 30 babies for heart surgery in India
Jan 15, 2024
“We have worked closely with the Heart Institute and so far we have gotten 17 who are due for the surgery and we are still looking for more until we reach the required number,” Batte said.
Simon Batte, President of the rotary club of Muyenga addressing rotarians during the flagging off of children with heart complications for an operation to Indi. (Photos by Simon Peter Tumwine)
Nelson Kiva
Journalist @New Vision
_______________________ Simon Batte the rotary President of the rotary Club of Muyenga speaking during the flag off Simon Batte the rotary president of rotary club of Muyenga in suit franked with parents of children with heart complication being flagged off to India looking on as rotarian Mike Mpima addresses them. Konge buddy group receiving their certificate of reconciliation as the best buddy group
The Rotary Club of Muyenga in Kampala has sponsored 30 children for heart surgery in India.
The support comes amidst worrying statistics of children being born with heart-related defections in Uganda.
The club on Friday announced that with the support from their partners in India, they were sponsoring surgery operations and treatment for 30 babies born with heart-related complications.
The revelation by the club president, Simon Batte, offered the parents of the selected children to benefit from the offer some relief.
“I want to thank Rotary for offering to support us with the treatment of our children in India. Who are we to be chosen from many for the offer? I hope it will be one day when we will return to thank you,” Liz Watali, the mother of Liam Nayenga who was diagnosed with a heart condition called Valvular pulmonary Stenosis said.
This was during the flag-off of the first batch of the 14 children to India hosted at Muyenga International Hotel in Kampala.
“We had our initial meeting with our partners in India which was initiated by our past district governor Emmanuel Katongole who was on the tour and they came up with the offer of 30 slots for babies with heart complications to be operated on in India and at no cost,” he said.
According to Batte, the beneficiaries were identified with the help of the Uganda Heart Institute (UHI) at Mulago which has many of those cases.
“We have worked closely with the Heart Institute and so far we have gotten 17 who are due for the surgery and we are still looking for more until we reach the required number,” he said.
Michael Mpiima, the chairperson of service projects at the Rotary Club of Muyenga said this is being done under a project called Little Hearts Mending in India and that the project will cost about $450,000 (about sh170m).
“This project originated under our area of focus which is disease prevention and treatment and saving maternal death through treatment. Also based on the statistics in Uganda today that for every 100 children born, one child has a heart disorder, we felt touched by Rotarians and decided to put our hands together so that we can rescue lives in Uganda. So through our bigger network of Rotarians in India, we came up with this project and we are determined to ensure that we can save the lives of these children,” he said.
He called on all Ugandans to join efforts in saving the lives of children born with heart complications who are overwhelmingly many at the Uganda Heart Institute and other parts of the country.
The treatment and operations, he said will take place at Chennai Children’s Hospital India and save for the visa fees and passports, the rest including accommodation, inland transportation, and feeding, are catered for.
According to Dr. Judith Namuyonga, a consultant pediatrician at the UHI, there are various types of heart conditions in children, including congenital and acquired heart diseases.
She noted that 8 to 10 children per 1,000 live births in Uganda have congenital heart diseases.
This translates to 8,000 babies annually with Congenital Heart Defects (CHD) out of about 16,000 babies born in Uganda every year.
She said that CHD occurs when the heart or blood vessels near the heart do not develop normally before birth, leading to symptoms such as abnormal heart rhythms, blue-tinted skin, shortness of breath, failure to feed or develop normally, and swollen body tissue or organs.
Namuyonga highlighted that at least 2,000 of these require urgent surgeries at birth.
Globally, cardiovascular diseases also known as heart diseases remain the leading cause of death, contributing to 17.9 million deaths annually.
In Africa, the burden is high, with an estimated 1.3 million deaths per year. Uganda shares this burden, with high blood pressure affecting one in four adults, posing severe risks such as heart diseases, strokes, and kidney failure.
According to experts, there is a 27% chance that Ugandans aged 30 to 70 will succumb to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), with cardiovascular diseases contributing 9% of these deaths.
However, the health ministry has expressed optimism that with the help of key partners, they are making progress in the treatment of heart-related diseases with modern equipment installed at Mulago and other public and private facilities in the country.
Recently Mulago announced that over 1000 patients will benefit from open-heart surgeries up to November 2024.
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