Sunday Times 2
Take Heart Mercy Mission here for 10th consecutive year
A team of doctors from Evelina Children’s Hospital, a branch of the famous Guy’s Hospital in London was in Sri Lanka on their annual “Take Heart Mercy Mission” from October 13- 23 performing heart surgery on young children in the ages of 6 months to 15 years at the Karapitiya Hospital, Galle. This is the 10th consecutive year that the team has come to Sri Lanka. Up to now they have performed heart surgery on more than 200 children, saving the lives of so many with life threatening heart defects.
The 14-member medical team performed 21 heart surgeries in October, all of which were successful.
The project began as a result of successful heart surgery performed by Dr.Conal Austin a heart surgeon at Guys Hospital, London on a Sri Lankan in London called Jai Lameer. With the help of Mr. Lameer, Dr. Austin began making annual visits to Sri Lanka with a medical team to operate on poor children with heart defects free of charge. Thus the “Take Heart Mercy Mission” was started 10 years ago with the assistance of eminent Cardiologist John Simpson.
Mr.Lameer passed away in 2012 but Paul Scally, Chairman of the Gillingham Football Club in Kent, U.K readily took on the project and it became the official charity of his club. The mercy missions have also donated medical equipment worth millions of rupees to the Cardiac Unit at the Karapitiya Hospital and assisted needy children to obtain valves, even on occasion paying for the accomodation of a mother from Jaffna who had nowhere to stay when her child was in hospital.
Through the U.K team the medical staff of Karapitiya Hospital and medical students of the Faculty of Medicine, Ruhuna University have a wonderful opportunity of learning new skills in operative experience, anaesthetic instructions, intensive care management as they conduct lecture programmes for them.
The medical team sacrifice one week of their holiday to conduct the Mission in Sri Lanka and work long hours somedays till as late as 10 p.m. with only a one hour lunch break.
I am personally very happy to be associated with this project of Guy’s Hospital as my great grandfather Sir Charles Henry De Soysa during his visit to England donated money to English hospitals one of which was Guys Hospital. So I feel very glad to be helping in a small way in the project of a hospital that my ancestor helped. May the Mercy Mission Medical Team and the Gillingham Football Club Chairman and coaches continue their good work in Sri Lanka for many years to come.