Healthy Heart - new project of Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center
February marked the start of a new targeted assistance project of Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center, it is called "Healthy Heart". During the online conference in "Segodnya Multimedia" the Center's Coordinator Rimma Fil and the Head of "Targeted Assistance" direction told about the project and assistance to Donbas children with congenital heart defects. The special guest of the event was Ihor Ditkovsky, endovascular surgeon at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery named after N.M. Amosov, Ukrainian National Academy of Medical Sciences.
"Rinat Akhmetov always treated children with special warmth. Donbas children have always been and still remain the main focus of Rinat Akhmetov Foundation and the Humanitarian Center. For the past 2.5 years the Center's programs are aimed at saving our young compatriots affected by the military conflict. And the new "Healthy Heart" project is also aimed at helping children with heart diseases to live a full healthy life", ‒ Rimma Fil said.
"Healthy Heart" project implies helping to purchase occluders to make heart surgeries for children who have been diagnosed following diseases:
- patent ductus arteriosus;
- secondary atrial septal defect.
Assistance from Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center may be provided to all children (0 to 18 years old) from Donetsk and Luhansk regions, both living in non-government-controlled areas and IDPs who left for peaceful territories of Ukraine.
"It is very important for Rinat Akhmetov to help families who got into troubles. The price of an occluder is nearly UAH 100,000, and parents often cannot afford to pay for their child's treatment. This direction is highly demanded. Over the entire operation period the Humanitarian Center paid for 25 occluders for kids. We saw how many requests are coming for this kind of assistance and opened a special project", ‒ Yuliia Herasymenko noted.
Statistically, about 4,500 children are born with heart defects every year, 600-700 of them are from Donetsk and Luhansk regions. According to the Center's data, last year 30 Donbas children with patent ductus arteriosus and secondary defect of interatrial septum were operated in Kyiv. As part of "Healthy Heart" project it is planned to help 35 children till the end of 2017.
Children with these diagnoses are recommended endovascular surgery with the use of occluders. This treatment implies corrective surgery to close the defect. Which means that after the operation a child can get back to living a full life.
"Endovascular operations is the most modern and completely atraumatic method of treatment, ‒ Ihor Ditkovsky explains. – It is very expensive, and unfortunately, help from the state is minimal. Half of the children with congenital heart defects got help from charitable organizations. Last year thanks to the help of Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center we operated seven children on occluders implantation. Thank you for this help. Ukrainian children deserve to be treated according to international standards and have the right to a long, happy and healthy life".
The first certificate was presented to two-year-old Roma from Kamyshevakha settlement in Luhansk region. "When Roma's family called our hotline, the Center reacted promptly. Doctors said that any delay was dangerous for the child's life. On February 1 emergency surgery was successfully held at the Centre for cardiology and cardiac surgery. The baby is already back home with his mom, he feels good. And this is the greatest victory for us", – Yuliia Herasymenko shares.
To get help with occluders from the Humanitarian Center, one has to:
- Call the Humanitarian Center's hotline 0800 50 9001 and leave an application.
- Provide the documents confirming the disease.
- Provide a copy of passport and individual taxpayer identification number of one of the parents.
- Provide child's birth certificate.
- Be able to travel to Kyiv to conduct a surgery.
