The report of the first medical mission of the project "R-Evoving wings. Medical care beyond borders"
La prima missione che rientra nel progetto “Ali in circolo” si è svolta dal 15 al 22 marzo 2025 in Camerun, all’Hopital General de Yaoundé dove opera il nostro partner “Una voce per Padre Pio”. Il Team di Cardiochirurgia pediatrica dell’Ospedale San Vincenzo di Taormina è partito con 12 membri per effettuare 5 giorni di interventi. Flying Angels ha finanziato il volo di 5 operatori e ha già ricevuto e approvato la richiesta di volo per i primi tre bambini individuati attraverso screening durante la missione.
During the mission, a second level cardiological screening was carried out on 50 patients, enrolling 21 patients in an operating list for interventions to be performed in Cameroon and drawing up a list of patients to be treated in Italy for more complex interventions (Medevac list).
The two medical teams
The Italian medical team
The Italian Team was composed of: 1 Cardiac Surgeon, 1 Cardiologist, 1 Anesthetist, 2 Perfusionists, 3 Nurses, 2 Intensivists, 1 Paediatrician, 1 Instrumentalist.
The local medical team
The Local Team was composed of: 3 Cardiologists, 2 Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons, 3 Anesthetists-Resuscitators, 2 Perfusionists, 2 Instrumentalists, 2 Anesthetists, 8 Resuscitation Nurses.
The hospital
The hospital provided the facility, local health workers(doctors, nurses and technicians) and covered the costs of hospitalization of patients. The hospital used an ICU module with 7 monitored beds (four equipped with a ventilator), an operating room and an ordinary pre- and post-operative inpatient department with 14 beds.(Modificato)Ripristina originale
The three phases of the activity
Free heart surgery in Cameroon
Create the conditions necessary to offer life-saving cardiac surgery, thus providing an opportunity for care to those who lack it, helping to reduce inequalities in the healthcare system.
Med. Evac. Program (Medical Evacuation)
Give a second chance at treatment to those who cannot be operated on locally. Organize the transfer of patients with more serious cardiac conditions to Italy, to allow them to receive advanced treatments and complex surgery, which are not available in their country of origin.
Training and strengthening of local skills
Training of local medical and health personnel, with the aim of increasing the capacity to perform pediatric cardiac surgery in Cameroon. This will not only improve the quality of immediate care, but will also help to form a local network of specialists, ensuring continuity and sustainability in the long term.
The Mission Report
The peculiarity of the surgical interventions performed is that all the operated patients presented a congenital heart disease in “natural history”. This aspect is fundamental because children in natural history present anatomical characteristics of the heart and a degree of involvement of the entire body structure peculiar. Therefore, even performing a “simple” closure of a ductus arteriosus of botallo represents a very high risk connected to the size of the duct and above all to the degree of damage to the pulmonary circulation and to the entire body development of the child, the same consideration can be extended to the treatment of tetralogy of Fallot which is accompanied by moderate-severe cyanosis of all organs and systems until surgical resolution which is recommended between 4 and 6 months of life but many of the patients operated in Yaoundè were older than three years.
All surgical sessions were shared (diagnosis, indication, timing, anesthesia and resuscitation techniques, surgical procedures and management of extracorporeal circulation) with local healthcare personnel. Patients affected by the most common simple and complex congenital heart diseases such as atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect, tetralogy of Fallot, and persistent ductus arteriosus of Botanus were operated on.
To date, all operated patients have been discharged home.
