As Israel prepared to open its first embassy in Zambia’s capital of Lusaka last week, the Israeli nonprofit Save a Child’s Heart (SACH) scrambled to find the funding necessary to provide the southern African country with a new, state-of-the-art heart-lung machine, a project that had been in the works for some time, but which it could now connect to the diplomatic development. 

“It was very exciting because we were working on the funding for this project, and we were able to bring it all together in perfect time for the opening ceremony of the embassy,” Simon Fisher, SACH’s executive director, told eJewishPhilanthropy, calling the LivaNova S-5 that the hospital will receive the “Rolls-Royce” of heart-lung machines. 

SACH is an Israeli-based international nonprofit that brings children suffering from heart disease in countries where access to pediatric heart care is limited or nonexistent to Israel for surgery. The organization also trains local doctors in cardiac surgery so they can perform such operations at home. A heart-lung machine, also known as a bypass machine, acts as the heart and lungs of the patient during open-heart surgery, allowing the body to continue functioning during the operation.

The $200,000 machine, which was provided by SACH and the American Jewish Committee, in partnership with Zambia’s National Heart Hospital, will soon allow the hospital’s Zambian cardiac team — which was trained by SACH at Wolfson Medical Center in Israel — to double the number of children treated locally for heart conditions.

“We believe that this is part and parcel of taking another step forward and actually doubling the number of patients that they treat,” Fisher said. “We’re hoping that within a few years they can [treat] a couple of hundred patients a year in a similar way that we are doing here in Israel. We hope that the heart-lung machine will arrive in time for a Christmas gift by [the] end of the year of 2025. ”

Fisher announced the acquisition of the heart-lung machine last Wednesday following the embassy opening ceremony, where Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Zambia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Mulambo Haimbe met with Fisher; Wayne Sussman, the director of AJC Africa Institute; Dr. Chabwela Shumba, director of the National Heart Hospital; and members of the NHH medical team who were trained in Israel.  

Also present at the ceremony, hosted by Israel’s Ambassador to Zambia Ofra Farhi, were heart patients Kechese Syapiila, 16, and Joseph Phiri, 18, both of whom underwent successful open-heart surgery in Israel through SACH a year ago.

The purchase of the machine came after a direct request from the National Heart Hospital, which had been operating with an aging heart-lung machine that made surgeries slower and riskier, Fisher said. SACH and the AJC partnered to secure the funding, with half of the cost coming from the hospital itself and the other half from the two organizations, he said.

SACH has been operating in Zambia since 2007 and has saved the lives of 200 children from Zambia, both in Israel at the Wolfson Medical Centre and during medical missions to Lusaka to the National Heart Hospital, Fisher said.

“This is a part of the larger picture where we have a program today in Tanzania and a program in Rwanda and a program in Zambia. In all these places there’s pediatric cardiac surgery which is taking place based on knowledge and skill acquired in Israel through Save a Child’s Heart,” Fisher added.

SACH trained NHH’s pediatric cardiac surgeon, Dr. Mudaniso Ziwa, four years ago and he now leads the program at the NHH. Fisher said a second pediatric surgeon is now in his third year of training in Israel and will soon be joining the NHH team, consisting of Dr. Michael Kangwa, cardiac anesthesiologist, and Felix Kamuchungu, heart-lung machine technician, all of whom are also graduates of the SACH training program at Wolfson Medical Center. Plans are in the works for a second heart-lung machine technician to soon begin his yearlong training as well, said Fisher.

At the same time, SACH will continue to bring children from Zambia to Israel for heart surgery because the waiting list for medical treatment remains quite long despite the training and new medical equipment, he said.

SACH is now preparing for a double mission to Zambia in September, in which some 30 children will be treated by a group of surgeons from Tanzania trained by SACH who will be coming to work with the Zambian group. In addition, a group of Israeli surgeons will perform catheterizations using advanced technology that allows cardiologists to seal off the hole in the heart without needing to perform open heart surgery by implanting a special umbrella-like device.

“That means that the child can actually be treated without having to go on a bypass machine, without having to open up the chest,” said Fisher. “It’s more advanced technology, and this is also something that we are sharing with them.”