Bangalore hospital opens heart to Iraqi kids

The healing touch of hospitals in Bangalore is now beckoning an estimated 2,500 children with cardiac disorders from war-torn Iraq.

The children ranging from newly-borns to 12 years will be flown down to Bangalore in batches from next month for treatment at Narayana Hrudayala Institute of Cardiac Sciences.

Revealing this information to reporters, leading cardiac surgeon and Chairman of Narayana Hrudalaya Devi Shetty the Iraqi Government has selected their hospital for treating the children with cardiac disorder in view of the availability of advanced facilities and the state-of-the-art facilities technology to perform complicated heart surgeries.

“Providing high quality cardiac care at a subsidized cost has been our forte. That is the reason behind Iraqi Government choosing our hospital”, Shetty claimed.

The average of cost of each surgery will range between Rs 60,000 to Rs 70,000, which will be borne by a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) from Iraq. Apart from this, the NGO will also sponsor traveling, accommodation and other miscellaneous expenses pertaining to the visit of the children and their parents.

Devi Shetty said their hospital could perform about 15 to 16 surgeries every day on the children. The hospital will be able to attend to all the estimated 2,500 children over a period of eight months.

The hospital with a 1,000-bed facility is gearing up to provide accommodation to the children and their parents. “The hospital has made adequate arrangements for the accommodation of the Iraqi visitors”, he said.
The proposed visit of 2,500 children with cardiac disorders from Iraq is reckoned to be the largest such contingent arriving in Bangalore from abroad for medical treatment. The earlier groups flown into Bangalore from Malaysian and African countries rarely exceeded 12 to 15 children.