“New Heart, New Hope”, an initiative by an expatriate Syrian doctor to perform heart surgeries for children for free

Treating children with heart defects is what the “New Heart, New Hope” initiative is based on. The initiative has been founded by the Syrian expatriate doctor in France, Dr. Issam Kammache who is a specialist and consultant in pediatric cardiology. The whole initiative is based on Dr. Kammache’s keenness to serve the people of his country.

According to Dr. Kammache , who has lived in France since 2005 and who launched the initiative in 2021, the initiative is concerned with treating Syrian children with heart diseases, and performing heart surgeries for them in France, and sometimes in Switzerland, free of charge, in cooperation with the French Fraternity Association, which is concerned with treating children with heart diseases. He noted that about forty children have benefited from the initiative so far.

Dr. Kammache , who has extensive medical experience working in a number of hospitals in France and Switzerland, said that the idea of the initiative came after the consultations he received from people.  The initiative targets children who have conditions amenable to surgery, which is the only criterion on which it is based.

The initiative’s first annual meeting in Sweida brought together families of children from various governorates who benefited from the initiative and underwent heart surgeries in France and Switzerland during the past three years.

It is noteworthy that Dr. Issam Kammache is from the town of Al-Ghariya in Sweida. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Damascus in 1999. He then obtained postgraduate certificates in pediatrics from the University of Damascus in 2003 and the Arab Board in Pediatrics in 2004. He is a consultant in pediatrics in a number of countries. He holds a specialist certificate in pediatric cardiology in France, and was among the first medical team in France to implant a pulmonary valve in children without surgery in 2009.

NR