Missions to Foreign Countries

402 patients examined in two hospitals and orphanage Shamida Ethiopia. 5 Days of Intensive Work in Ethiopia. Now the harder work begins. Find a way to help patients who have been diagnosed with heart damage by our doctors. There were many, and it will not be easy to provide help for all. But we are looking for possibilities. Huge thanks to our medical team, working in difficult conditions at 200% Anna Chaloupka, Michal Pazdernik, Maria Holicka and Marketa Mikulcova. Fantastic work.

The mission to Botswana is over, within five days our doctors have echocardiographically examined almost 700 people, including 340 children. The entire mission was organized in collaboration with local doctors from the capital, Gaborone, and was the first ever screening of rheumatic heart disease in this country. We found a total of seven pathological findings. All of them were then taken care of, whether in the form of scheduled clinical check-ups, or in two cases the timing of early operations. None of the screened people had been aware of their illness before. Thank you all for your support!

The mission to Nepal is over. In total, we examined over 1,200 people, of which more than half of the children. We have detected 14 heart defects that we will continue to follow. We are ready to financially support the treatment of all children and the costs of transport to performance and medication. And already during the mission we have ensured the operation of small Sunity. Enjoying solid health. None of this would be possible without your support. Thank you for that.

In July 2018, doctors Dr. Jan Naar (Na Homolce Hospital in Prague) and Dr. Maria Holicka (Faculty Hospital Brno Bohunice) left their families behind and went to examine poor patients to South Africa. In a pre-selected population of 94 patients with heart murmurs, they found 12 patients with congenital heart disease and 9 patients with rheumatic heart disease. Did you know that this huge country (population 56 million) has only 160 cardiologists, of which only 30 work in public hospitals?

The doctors of the Czech Heart Foundation Michal Pazdernik from IKEM in Prague and Radoslav Maxian from VÚSCH in Košice visited a primary school near Khartoum. The aim is to examine the local pupils free of charge. Nearly one hundred children who would not normally be able to undergo such an examination. But the our program will allow them. Great!

The fourth mission in the history of our foundation is over, we have screened altogether 951 people in 5 days !!! We were examining BMI, blood pressure, glycemia and heart function using echardiography. Thanks to all team members, it was unforgettable time.

Our April medical mission to Ghana is possible only with help of the Less Privileged Ghana Foundation - non-profitable organisation helping less privileged people in Ghana. Thanks to co-founder David Ekow Duron for all his help with preparation. And we are looking forward to the journey together. We will take to Ghana not only medical team, free examinations and medical assistance. We also carry joy for the little ones. Toys which treat in a different way: by puting smile on children face.

Ghana stays in our hearts. Over 300 patients went for a heart examination - 5 villages and cities. Great experiences and memories.

After the end of the mission in Nepal, we visited Sudan again. We visited Alzaiem Alazhari University in Khartoum, Sudan, where we met with students and answered their questions about internships in Czech hospitals. Afterwards, a selection process was held in which we were able to meet each of the candidates in person. The next 2 students will come for a month-long internship at the IKEM in Prague in January 2017.

Subsequently, we also investigated in small villages around the capital Khartoum. In the heat, the dust. With the help of local medical students. A wonderful experience among great people.

We will organize volunteer mission to Nepal. Our primary goal is Africa, but we could not refuse help in the areas affected by the recent earthquake. African Heart Foundation team - Michal Pazderník and Tomáš Kaplan accompanied by cardiologists Shahn Suhail and Denisa Jahnlová will depart at the end of September 2016. During the one-week mission we will examine adults and children with the aim of diagnosing rheumatic heart disease and congenital heart defects.

Michal Pazderník first came to Sudan in 2013, when he approached the Italian NGO Emergency. It funds The Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery, a cardiac surgery clinic in Sudan, which is the only free heart surgery clinic on the African continent. Five days a week, three patients each day. "In Sudan, for the first time, I saw refugee camps where 400,000 people are crowded in mud huts. The people there don't have basic health care, the children don't have vaccines or routine medicines. This opened my eyes and I started working on setting up a foundation in the Czech Republic," he recalls how the idea of the Czech Heart Foundation project came about.

He went on his first mission alone and found great contacts for the first steps towards cooperation, which has been developing beautifully ever since. Today, members of the foundation are helping not only in Sudan, but also in Nepal, Ethiopia, Ghana and Botswana to treat congenital heart defects in paediatric patients and inviting African medical students to IKEM for research internships. Pazderník himself likes to return to Sudan because the people there have grown close to his heart. "The vast majority in those truly Muslim countries in Africa are kind and good people," Pazdernik recalls how a team of doctors once invited an elderly villager to their home. "Even though he had almost nothing to eat, he provided fruit to treat us."