Medair CEO praised Netcare staff and International Relations and Co-operation department for supporting Yemeni family.
|||Johannesburg - A 2-month-old baby from Yemen who was flown into South Africa for desperately needed heart surgery he could not have in his war-torn country is back home and doctors are satisfied with his recovery.
“We last heard that baby Yazan was doing well and the family is happy to have him home and to be united again,” said Bruce Johnstone, the chief executive of Medair, an international non-governmental organisation that helps people who are suffering in remote and devastated communities around the world survive.
Yazan Yousif Qade was in dire need of heart surgery, but to get to the doctors who could treat him, a team of South African medical aviation evacuation specialists had to find a way to safely evacuate him and his mother from Sanaa, Yemen, on the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula. Because of the civil war in the country, the little boy could not obtain medical care.
Johnstone said Yazan suffered from a life-threatening congenital coarctation of the aorta, which is the narrowing of the large blood vessel branching out from the heart.
He said they were approached by Alliance International Medical Services to take on this medical evacuation.
“Despite the difficult and dangerous situation, Netcare 911 and its medical aviation partner, Medair, felt compelled to help as it was made clear to us that we were Yazan’s last hope,” said Johnstone.
Born on January 4. Yazan was only 28 days old when Netcare 911 and Medair were alerted to his condition.
The team decided to take the child to Netcare Sunninghill Hospital in Johannesburg.
Johnstone said flight clearances had to be obtained for every country’s airspace that would be traversed during the long flight from and back to South Africa.
“Transporting such a young and critically ill patient is an intricate process in itself, but this case was further complicated by the fact that permission had to be sought from the Saudi Arabian authorities to cross Saudi airspace, and we then had to wait for them to give us safe timeslots for the flights.”
“We were fully aware of the political sensitivities that needed to be negotiated for us to conduct a mercy flight in that part of the world,” said Johnstone.
Owing to the closure of the Saudi Arabian border, his father could not come with them to South Africa and only his mother, Ameera Hussian Aljadb, could accompany Yazan on his journey.
“The family received tremendous support from their embassy and the South African Department of International Relations and Co-operation.”
“We took Ms Aljadhi under our wing and were able to communicate with her via an interpreter who was arranged by AIMS.” said Grindell.
“It is heart-warming that we were able to work together under the most difficult circumstances to save the life of a little human being from a far-away, war-ravaged country,” he said.
sphelele.ngubane@inl.co.za
@sphengubane
The Mercury