UAE's Emirates World Heart Group performs open-heart surgeries in Bosnia

Abu Dhabi, June 9, 2010 (WAM)- A team of world-class heart surgeons affiliated with Emirates World Heart Group is in Bosnia and Herzegovina to perform ten open heart surgeries at the Bosnian university hospital.
The team which left for Bosnia following instructions issued by H.H Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed, Ruler's Representative in Western Region and Chairman of the UAE Red Crescent Authority (RCA) includes medical personnel from the UAE, France and other countries. During the one-week visit, the team will operate on needy Bosnians who cannot afford the expensive procedures.
The team has already started examining the cardiac cases which include congenital heart defects, valvular heart diseases and clogged arteries which indicate valve replacement and/or diagnostic and therapeutic catheterization, according to chief executive of the Emirates World Humanitarian Mobile Hospital and head of the Emirates Mobile Cardiology Centre Dr Adel Al-Shamri.
The surgeries will be minimally invasive robot-assisted through tiny incisions in the patient's chest rather than making incisions large enough to expose and provide access to the area that is being operated on, according to heart surgeon Olivier Jegaden of the Hopital Cardiologique de Lyon, France, who is part of the team. Al-Shamri said there are plans to perform 100 heart surgeries to treat children and elderly patients with heart cases. – Emirates News Agency, WAM