World Heart Day: Senait from Eritrea

Senait is a 37-year-old woman and mother of three. She has a heart condition that she has never been able to have treated. As a result, she becomes weak very easily.

We met Senait in August during the heart screening mission run from our cardiology clinic at Orotta Hospital in Asmara, Eritrea. Her diagnosis? Malformation of the mitral and aortic valves in her heart.

Eritrea is one of the 33 countries from which we receive patients with congenital and acquired heart conditions, who are treated free of charge in Sudan under our cardiac surgery Regional Programme.

Soon after that check-up, we told Senait: “You can go to the Salam Centre, our Cardiac Surgery Centre in Sudan. Over there we’ll replace all your bad valves with new mechanical valves. The treatment will be completely free.”

As part of the information we gave her before the operation, we assured Senait that we’d be there for her at all times: when she set out, when she arrived in Khartoum, throughout her post-operative treatment at the Salam Centre and even once she was back in Eritrea, when she could come back to this clinic for all the necessary follow-up checks and for anticoagulant therapy, which is essential treatment for heart surgery patients.

Here’s a photo of Senait after she found out she would be able to have the operation and fix the complications with her health. Besides gratitude, we saw in her smile the same hope we share: the hope that everyone, everywhere, will be able to have the same treatment and the same rights.

EMERGENCY’s activities at the Orotta Medical Surgical National Referral Hospital in Asmara, Eritrea, are funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS).