La Chaîne de l’Espoir returns to Cambodia

A cardiac surgery and training mission led by Prof. Gérard Babatasi, Head of Cardiac Surgery at Caen University Hospital, will visit Phnom Penh and Siem Reap from April 22 to May 8.

La Chaîne de l’Espoir had not returned to Cambodia for two years due to the health situation. Last December, Prof. Babatasi carried out a short mission there, with the aim of relaunching operating and training activities at the Kantha Bopha hospitals in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, starting in 2022. The mission led to the signing of an unprecedented two-year protocol with the Swiss Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital Foundation.

With the companionship and expertise of La Chaîne de l’Espoir’s medical teams for many years, the Kantha Bopha pediatric hospital acquired a cardiac surgery department in Siem Reap in 2011 and then in 2018 in its new pediatric unit built in Phnom Penh.

Autonomous for many years in the management of simple heart disease, the medical teams at Kantha Bopha still need support in the management of complex heart disease, particularly in babies, and in palliative surgery.

The children’s waiting list is substantial, and has grown with the containment measures of the last two years.

The cooperation agreement also provides for training to be extended to other specialties such as laparoscopy andorthopedics, for which missions by French specialists are already planned.

Dr. Beat RICHNER, founder of the Kantha Bopha Hospital Foundation, opened his 1st pediatric hospital in 1992. To date, 5 hospitals in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh have been opened, providing free care for 85% of Cambodia’s sick children in need of treatment, hospitalization or surgery. Dr. Beat Richner passed away in 2018; Dr. Denis Laurent has since been the director of the Kantha Bopha hospitals.

La Chaîne de l’Espoir is an international NGO founded in 1994 and present in nearly 30 countries. Its mission is to strengthen healthcare systems to give everyone, especially children, the same chances of survival and development.