Brigadier General Doctor Shaikh Fahad bin Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Acting Commander of the Royal Medical Services for the Hospitals of the Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) announced that since the opening of the unit of Her Highness Shaikha Moza bint Hamad Al Khalifa Pediatric Cardiology and Surgery Unit in March 2022 at the Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa bin Salman Centrer (MKCC), 117 open-heart surgeries have been performed successfully for children suffering from heart defects from birth.
The acting commander said that these sophisticated “open-heart” surgeries have contributed to reducing the financial burden and trouble of travel on patients and their families.
He noted that these operations are conducted for the first time in Bahrain, in the presence of a specialided team and use of technologies that keep pace with the latest medical developments in the field of heart surgery in general and open-heart operations, in particular, which has a positive impact on the health system in the kingdom.
The acting commander said that MKCC’s Department of Pediatric Cardiology, which is implementing the plan set by the Royal Medical Services to achieve quality and excellence in providing health services to citizens and residents according to international standards to achieve sustainable development, has been treating many cases of congenital heart defects in children and adults, for more than 10 years with the provision of all the necessary techniques and expertise.
More than 500 successful interventional cardiac catheterization operations have been performed at MKCC, 130 of them took place within one year, since the opening of the Shaikha Moza bint Hamad Al Khalifa Pediatric Cardiology and Surgery Unit, which reduced the number of cases that need surgeries, he said.