A Foundation With Heart: Expanding Access to Cardiac Care

In the recent history of Bui Division, the inauguration of the Cardiac Center of St. Elizabeth Catholic General Hospital, Shisong stands paramount.  But this was before the gruesome war that has almost wiped off all the good in the land in favour of the unbelievable destructive inhuman realities that cloud the minds, lips and local media.  As the collaborators (Tertiary Sisters of St. Francis, Associazione Cuore Fratello and Associazione Bambini Cardiopatici nel Mondo) completed and set up the gigantic Cardiac Center, they knew it was the first important step.  Running the Cardiac Center in a sustainable way, finding the appropriate human resource, ensuring that everyone had access to cardiac surgery and other forms of treatment, steady procurement of consumables…was to be the next challenge, in fact, the guarantee of success.  From 2002 that the dream of the Cardiac Center from Don Claudio Maggioni was welcome in Shisong till 2009 of its inauguration, these major points were reviewed at every strategic meeting and plans for leveling up the challenge were executed.

The question of universal access to the Cardiac Center was toughest because the dynamics didn’t depend on us.  Paramount among these was the per capita income and economic strength of our potential clients, which stands at 3,900 USD (2,320,500 FCFA) in Cameroon and even lesser in Chad and the Republic of Central Africa, our neighbours who were also targeted beneficiaries of our cardiac services. If cardiac surgery was tagged at 3.5 million FCFA, an average family would need about two years, saving their entire income to avail of cardiac surgery. In fact, it is not feasible to save an entire income for even a month.

At the same time, cardiac services could not be free of charge for everyone.  We have experienced that fully funded healthcare offers are quick fixes that have hardly worked sustainably in Africa.  Therefore, “free surgeries for all” would not be an option for the Cardiac Center whereby the partners were unanimous in planning for its sustainability and “autonomy”—an Cameroonian facility run by Cameroonians for the people of Central/West Africa.  In addition to these, there is no universal healthcare insurance in Cameroon; smaller schemes, like BEPHA, would not cover heart diseases especially surgery.

From this logic, one would wonder for whom the Cardiac Center was then created.  Who would be able to benefit from the services?  Some advised us to invest in managing simpler and more common pathologies like malaria, respiratory tract infections, etc.  Unfortunately, this logic re-instates a position where the “rich” Cameroonian can fly to Europe, America and India for such specialized services while the poor languish and submit to fate.  No! If we are serious about the claims that health care is a universal right, then we should not miss the opportunity of having an ultra-modern Cardiac Center in Shisong—Cameroon just because most people are poorer and can’t afford it.  Of course, there are cardiac patients and there always will be.

How then do we ensure that these “poorer” patients who cannot have access to fly to the West for their treatment, avail of good quality cardiac treatment right from home? The creation of a scheme to raise funds to subsidize for their treatment was most logical, and that is where the Archbishop Paul Verdzekov Memorial Heart Foundation finds its rightful place.  The Foundation dreams of a situation where everyone has access to cardiac services,  irrespective of their socio-economic situation.  Therefore, funding needs to enter the Heart Foundation for this noble services.  That is why our main objective is to accompany cardiac patients in their treatment process and a principal way to ensure this is through fundraising and psycho-social support.  Who then will pay for the poor? Everyone can donate what they have and it will become huge and save a life.  We have experienced many instances where many donate little and lives are saved.

So please, get involved in enabling everyone, especially the less privileged, avail of quality treatment of heart diseases in Cameroon, timely and completely.  Try it out by making a donation.