WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th May, 2021) A group of US pediatric heart surgeons from the Novick Cardiac Alliance conducted surgeries on more than a dozen Syrian refugee children in Lebanon as a part of a pilot program, the surgeon team's leader Bill Novick told Sputnik.
"We operated on 14 children with varying degrees of complexity, including 11 Syrian children," Novick said after concluding the two-week trip to Lebanon.
All Syrian children that underwent surgeries arrived from different refugee camps across Lebanon.
Novick explained that the children suffered a spectrum of defects from simple to complex in terms of their particular heart diseases.
"One child has a literally simple defect and another one was with the most complicated case," he said.
Novick explained that this was the second of three trips in the pilot program through which the US doctors try to assess whether their local colleagues and government have the capacity to build a heart surgery program for children.
"Overall, this trip was logistically and organizationally easier than the first trip. I do see progress in the Lebanese involved in this program. There are problems that are easily solvable," he said.
Initially, the team of surgeons was expected to operate on 19 children during this trip, but had to change plans for a number of reasons. The parent of one child was tested positive for the novel coronavirus, so the surgery was rescheduled to occur during the surgeons' next trip.
"One child was on the list and did not show up, parents did not answer the telephone. I do not know where that kid is," Novick said.
The US surgeons plan to return to Lebanon in late summer in early fall, he added.
The Novick Cardiac Alliance comprises a group of medical specialists from different countries who usually work in various "hot spots" around the world.
