Children's heart project No more long wait for paediatric surgery

The Children's Heart Project of Sri Lanka has since its inception in 1993, helped to raise the number of heart operations performed on children in the island from virtually zero to 600 per year.

There is a waiting list of 1,200 children, many of whom sadly will not survive the wait, says a spokesperson for the Children's Heart Project of Sri Lanka. One in every 400 children in the island is born with a potentially deadly congenital heart defect. Given the long waiting list, a child has to wait an average of two years for an operation, most often one that they can not survive.

'In addition, most of these children come from families who bear the burden of grinding poverty,' says the spokesperson. 'Therefore such an illness in the family is virtually the last straw for them.'

At present, the only State hospitals that are equipped for paediatric cardiac surgery are the National Hospital, Colombo, the Sri Jayewardenepura Hospital, the Teaching Hospital in Galle and the Lady Ridgeway Children's Hospital. A new facility at the Teaching Hospital in Kandy is currently under way.

The aim of the Children's Heart Project of Sri Lanka is to increase the number of successful children's heart operations performed annually and ultimately to eliminate the waiting lists.

This is done primarily by supporting the government with funds and donations in kind to build capacity; and in the interim by providing financial assistance to a limited number of children requiring urgent intervention and having to seek private sector facilities in Sri Lanka.