Heartfully… – Adrian Catu

About 1,200 newborns are diagnosed every year in Romania with a heart malformation which could be corrected through surgery. Only 500 of these cases can be operated because there are very few hospitals which can handle such cases and, more important, there are only two specialised paediatric surgeons across the whole country. Transferring the cases abroad is possible but in practice it only happens for a handful of patients.

Because of this situation, many such cases are operated in their teenage years instead of their early childhood. Worse, children die: 156 of them passed away of heart malformations only in 2017.

It takes a lot of time to train specialised surgeons, it can mostly be done abroad and chances are these surgeons would not return to Romania after their training. Yet, an NGO from Sibiu has found a way to help the children where the public institutions are unable to.

Polisano NGO has contacted medical teams from across Europe and convinced them to come and operate pro bono. A private hospital in Sibiu is providing the surgery facilities. And private donors are paying for the surgery consumables and the ITU recovery, so the patients don't need to pay anything. Depending on funding, each year there can be around 4 or 5 surgery sessions. Each session is one week long, treating around 10 of the most difficult cases.

But equally important, local surgeons are also trained through these sessions so they will soon be able to perform themselves the very complicated and risky paediatric heart surgeries.

More than 100 children have been operated since the NGO stated their program. All the surgeries have so far been successful.

This is a glimpse of their collective story.

Florin Bartus, 10, is sitting on a bed in the house where he lives with his parents, one day before being hospitalised for a heart surgery in January 2019. Florin has been diagnosed with VSD (ventricular septal defect) during a medical screening performed by Polisano NGO in his village, Vulpar, Sibiu county.

Florin Bartus is being consulted by a doctor on January 14, 2019, upon his admission to the Polisano hospital in Sibiu for a heart surgery. His surgery would eventually be postponed due to other more severe cases which required urgent interventions.

Monica Tatu, mother of 11 years old Daniel is hugging dr. Violeta Cotarla in response to the news that her son would be transferred to be operated in Bristol, UK. When he was 3, Daniel has been diagnosed with aortic stenosis after repeated nose bleedings and collapsing on slightest effort, or even due to the heat. His treatment required a Ross procedure, a complicated surgery in which the aortic valve is replaced by patient’s own pulmonary valve, which is subsequently replaced by a transplanted valve. His recovery time would have exceeded the possibilities of the programme.

Dr. Anca Mandache, dr. Serban Stoica and nurse Orsolya Kovacs are briefly stopping from their heart surgery on 6 months old Miruna Bolovan to check the patient’s indicators displayed on a monitor in the surgery room. Dr. Mandache, from Polisano hospital, is one of the surgeons being trained along with this program. She was the main surgeon in roughly half of the interventions, assisting dr. Stoica for the others.

A nurse is preparing 3 years old Felician for his heart surgery the afternoon of January 15, 2019. Felician came from a foster care and required the Ross procedure, a very complicated heart surgery. The intervention went well and for a month, he recovered at a hospital in Timisoara where a mutual bond has occurred between him and the treating doctors. In May 2019, after returning to the foster care, he has been brought to the Timisoara hospital with severe dehydration and died within a few hours. His little repaired heart functioned well until the end.

Coming from from a hospital in Bristol, UK, where she teams up with chief surgeon dr. Serban Stoica, perfusionist dr. Judith Halliday briefly entwines her hands in a critical moment during the surgery of 6 months old Miruna Bolovan on June 14, 2019. “I was thinking, God, not another one”, she later commented when she saw this photograph. Paediatric heart surgery is very demanding both for the surgeons and their patients.But so far, all surgeries from the Polisano programme have been successful.

Madalina Diaconu, mother of 6 months old Andrei, is waiting on the hallway of the intensive care unit for a nurse to escort her to see her son for the first time after his heart surgery.

Ramona Kolosvari is wiping her tears off her eyes while holding the hand of her 10 years old son, Patric, on the afternoon of June 10, 2019, two hours after his heart surgery to cure his VSD (ventricular septal defect).

Helped by a nurse, 10 years old Patric Kolosvari is making his first steps off his hospital bed after being subjected to a heart surgery to cure his ventricular septal defect the day before, on June 10, 2019.

Madalina Diaconu is watching her 6 months old son Andrei, who lays sedated in the intensive care unit of Polisano hospital, hours after his heart surgery.

Patric Kolosvari is changing his t-shirt in the house where he lives with his parents, three weeks after his heart surgery.

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