Every year, World Heart Day takes place on September 29. This day in the calendar aims to raise public awareness of certain diseases, including heart disease. For La Chaîne de l’Espoir, September 29 is a particularly significant date, as we work to ensure that children suffering from these diseases can benefit from appropriate medical care.

A day of struggle every September 29

Initiated by the World Hearth Federation, a non-governmental organization whose ancestor is the International Society and Federation of Cardiology, Heart Day is a day to raise awareness of cardiovascular disease, heart disease and stroke. Cardiovascular disease is considered to be the world’s leading cause of death, affecting around 17.7 million people, or 31% of all deaths worldwide.

La Chaîne de l’Espoir’s commitment to fighting cardiovascular disease

At La Chaîne de l’Espoir, cardiac pathologies play a significant role. Although they are not the only illnesses cared for by the association, they are predominant, for example, in the Care for Foreign Children in France program. In 2021, for example, 93% of the 74 children we cared for suffered from heart disease that could not be operated on in their countries of origin. Hence their arrival in mainland France and La Réunion.

These cardiac pathologies are also at the heart of the association’s actions in various intervention countries, and thanks to the training of local teams and the equipping of hospital establishments, historic medical firsts have taken place in Mali and Burkina Faso in particular.

In 2018, a great first in Mali’s medical history took place at the Centre André Festoc, a new technical platform dedicated́ to pediatric cardiac surgery within the Hôpital Mère-Enfant “Le Luxembourg” (HMEL) in Bamako. Little Fanta, aged 6 at the time and suffering from atrial septal defect (ASD), a serious congenital heart defect, was the first child to undergo open-heart surgery by Profs Mamadou Diarra and Olivier Baron during a La Chaîne de l’Espoir cardiopediatric surgery mission.

Three years later, a major medical first took place in Burkina Faso: 15-year-old Zalissa underwent open-heart surgery at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) de Tengandogo in Ouagadougou, as part of a new surgical mission by the association. A historic moment for medicine in this West African country! Since this great first, the team led by cardiovascular surgeon Dr Adama Sawado has made further progress: on October 11, 2022, 5-year-old Cédric underwent fully autonomous open-heart surgery.

These successes validate La Chaîne de l’Espoir’s support in setting up a cardiac surgery unit at Tengandogo University Hospital. This support focuses on 2 main areas:

• The supply of equipment and consumables adapted to this cutting-edge surgery,
• Training and enhancing the skills of local medical and paramedical teams.

These medical advances help us understand why La Chaîne de l’Espoir is so committed to this Heart Day.