Four friends, four colleagues, four different personalities united by the desire to help those in the world who do not have the resources to access healthcare by providing their work, their professionalism and what they do best: heart surgeons.
Four friends at the bar
Driven by a desire to help people affected by war and poverty, Drs. Roberto, Pilozzi, Kassem and Zanobini began to think about how to structure a project that would last over time and would not be limited to short, extemporary local initiatives.
In the following months, ideas and proposals began to be put down on paper that would become the foundations of what is now our Association.
Safe Heart Onlus was born in 2013, from an idea and the desire to help of four friends, people who decided that the world can be better if everyone gives a little of themselves.
Ten years have now passed and alongside these four friends, many others have joined them, also sharing the spirit and ideals of the Association and its founders.
The first contact
The first contact with Burkina Faso was established thanks to our friend and cardiologist colleague Silvia Perlangeli, head of the Migotigo association, which was already operating in these territories.
After several visits to Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, we were able to identify the most suitable hospital to host heart surgery and to follow the complex post-operative course of heart surgery patients, features that are not easy to find in Africa.
We thus got to know the University Hospital Centre in Tengandogo which, after the necessary checks, including by a bioengineer, was deemed suitable
Given the lack of equipment, we then started a fundraising campaign to recuperate the necessary machinery. By contacting several producers, we were able to recover the most obsolete and therefore less expensive equipment. After checking them and transporting them to the site, we were finally able to inaugurate the first operating room in Burkina Faso.
With a small donation you can give a great opportunity una grande opportunità
First heart surgery in Burkina Faso in 2021
The first heart surgery in Burkina Faso
To date, we have completed seven missions, five of which were technical and logistical. In 2021, we performed the first heart surgery in the history of Burkina Faso on a 15-year-old girl with a congenital anomaly (an inter-atrial defect) which was corrected according to European standards. The result was extremely positive and our aim now is to consolidate this experience by developing a long-term programme.
The Burkina Faso's heart surgeon
