Doctors from Genoa to Amman: 10 children from Gaza, Ramallah and Syria operated on
Gaslini Hospital specialists on a mission for young heart patients: 100 patients treated from 2019 to date
Key points
The fifth paediatric cardiac surgery mission of the Giannina Gaslini Institute of Genoa in Amman, where ten children suffering from severe congenital heart disease from war and refugee backgrounds were operated, has ended successfully.
The operations, carried out over five days at the Al Khalidi Hospital, involved young patients between 2 months and 15 years old who had arrived from Gaza, Ramallah, Syria and Jordanian refugee camps. All patients survived and were discharged from intensive care, some already returned home.
The initiative is part of an international programme supported by the organisations Gift of Life Amman and Gift of Life New York, targeting children without access to care in conflict-affected countries. During the mission, the team operated under difficult security conditions, with repeated air-raid alerts linked to regional tensions. "We worked throughout the week with missile alarms going off dozens of times a day," explained the head of the international cardiac missions Francesco Santoro.
The mission was attended by specialists from Gaslini, Mass Hospital and colleagues from Nablus and Ramallah, in a joint health cooperation effort. The project in Jordan is part of aprogramme started in 2019 and temporarily slowed down after 7 October 2023; in total over 100 young patients are treated in the various missions in the Middle East. At the same time, a protocol for the medical evacuation to Amman of children with congenital heart disease from Gaza, with the support of international NGOs and local authorities, is being drawn up.
The team has already announced a new mission scheduled for October 2026, with the aim of guaranteeing continuity in surgical operations and expanding the care of the most complex cases. Since 2024, under the aegis of the Italian Government and the Ministry of Health, Gaslini has also coordinated transfers and treatment for 26 Palestinian children hospitalised in Genoa and participated in health missions in several countries in the Middle East.
