Burkina Faso: first autonomous open-heart surgery

On October 11, five-year-old Cédric became the first child to undergo autonomous open-heart surgery by the CHU Tengandogo team, headed by Dr Adama Sawadogo, in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso.

Since birth, this young man from Burkina Faso had suffered from an intra-ventricular septal defect. This serious cardiac pathology put his life at risk. A few years ago, this boy would not have been able to undergo surgery in his own country.

This major medical breakthrough was made possible thanks to our mobilization since 2019 to support the development of cardiac surgery at this establishment: skills transfer missions within the hospital, internships for healthcare teams at the Alain Carpentier Institute in Vietnam under the supervision of Pr Alain Deloche, training at the Cuomo Pediatric Cardiac Center in Senegal with healthcare professionals themselves trained by La Chaîne de l’Espoir…

Since then, one major first has followed another: closed-heart surgery in 2019, companion open-heart surgery in 2021, culminating in this completely autonomous open-heart operation.

“I decided to become a cardiac surgeon because, during my medical studies, I saw many children dying from congenital heart disease and cardiac complications linked to rheumatic fever, diseases that have almost disappeared in Europe but are still endemic in Africa,” says Dr. Adama Sawadogo, who trained in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery with the support of La Chaîne de l’Espoir. “It’s thanks to this support that we were able to achieve this breakthrough. This first open-heart operation performed autonomously by our team was one of the best days of our professional lives.

Since young Cédric’s operation, Dr. Adama Sawadogo and his team have been performing one or two open-heart surgeries a week with the support of La Chaîne de l’Espoir. And the collaboration with surgeons and health professionals continues: “We’re very proud of the journey and the work accomplished by this team, which is extremely brilliant. We’re going to continue the training to enable them to develop their skills in dealing with more complex cardiac pathologies and younger children”, explains Dr Paul Neville, volunteer cardiac surgeon, who coordinates the missions in Burkina Faso.