Children get heart surgery for Christmas

SEVEN children will receive life-saving heart surgeries this festive season, following a sizeable donation by healthcare corporations.

The Heart-to-Heart campaign, raked in over R700 000 for crucial children’s heart procedures through donations made by Medipost Holdings and the Netcare Foundation, who are spearheading the campaign.

The campaign is a corporate social investment match-funding challenge to raise the resources for life-saving operations for children born with congenital heart defects.

Medipost Holdings placed a R360 000 donation towards the campaign via the non-profit organisation, Maboneng Foundation.

The foundation raises funds and co-ordinates sponsorship of surgeries for children with congenital heart defects. The Netcare Foundation then matched the donation.

Cardiac surgeon at the Maboneng Heart and Lung Institute based at Netcare Sunninghill Hospital, Johannesburg, Dr Erich Schürmann said: “There are no words to fully capture the significance of this remarkable donation for the children born with serious heart defects who will now get the surgeries they need.”

The surgeries are expected to take place over the next few weeks.

Medipost Holdings marketing director, Rentia Myburgh, said: “An investment in the health of children is an investment in the future of our society, and it is an immense privilege to support the Maboneng Foundation’s efforts to secure the resources to assist children requiring heart surgery.”

Netcare hospital division managing director Jacques du Plessis said there remained an enormous need for these highly complex paediatric heart operations for thousands of children in the country. About 10 000 babies are born with a congenital heart defect in South Africa each year, according to the Maboneng Foundation.