Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is an acquired cardiac disease that can occur directly from having untreated streptococcal pharyngitis (strep throat). In Rwanda, strep throat has been widely untreated due to limited resources, which has lead to thousands of cases of RHD within the Rwandan population.

Currently, Rwanda, a country of more than 11 million, does not have an autonomous open-heart surgery program. There are large numbers of young patients with rheumatic and congenital heart disease that will ultimately die from these conditions if they do not receive surgical intervention. 

King Faisal Hospital in Kigali, Rwanda has the infrastructure and personnel to pioneer an independent program.  CR-OP is a joint effort between our Canadian surgical team in conjunction with our Polish surgical team that has established experience with over a thousand open-heart procedures each year.

Our goal is to help Rwanda establish it’s first independent open-heart surgery program with short term visiting surgical teams and long term support for an ongoing program.  We hope to initiate and maintain educational and research arms, as well as a robust clinical program at King Faisal Hospital.

Members involved in the CR-OP initiative include a large group of volunteers including doctors, nurses and allied medical staff from Canada and Poland in cooperation with developing local Rwandan cardiac surgery team. Together we are capable of investigating, triaging, operating, and caring for patients requiring open heart surgery at King Faisal Hospital in Kigali, Rwanda.

CBC Interview with Dr. Keir Stewart and Dr. Dominique De Waard

Director

Coordinators

CR-OP team – May 2024 Mission

CR-OP team – October 2023 Mission

 

 

Team Members from Previous Missions

Adult team

17) May 2024 The CR-OP initiative included a team of 16 volunteer healthcare workers from across Canada and Poland. They traveled to King Faisal Hospital on our fifth mission. While there we perform open heart surgeries on 8 patients with a focus on education, teaching local surgeons and healthcare professionals the skills they need to perform these surgeries independently and provide postoperative care.

16) May 2024  We are excited to announce that we have been invited to Rwanda for another mission.  This upcoming mission will be our 5th mission.  A team of 16 volunteer members will travel to King Faisal Hospital in a continuing effort of developing the future of independent cardiac surgeries in Rwanda.

15) January 2024 Dalhousie University and CR-OP has concluded the MOU for receiving donations on behalf of CR-OP and has stepped down from assisting CR-OP with donations towards the missions.

14) October 2023 Upcoming mission will be our 4th mission.  Once again 20 volunteer members will travel to King Faisal Hospital in a continuing effort of developing the future of independent cardiac surgeries in Rwanda.

13) CBC Interview with Dr. Keir Stewart and Dr. Dominique De Waard.

12) June 2023 Immediately upon our return from Rwanda, the team hits the ground running with preparation and planning for the next trip in October 2023.

11) May 2023 The CR-OP initiative included a team of 20 volunteer healthcare workers from across Canada and Poland. They traveled to King Faisal Hospital on our third mission to assist the country in developing their first ever autonomous Cardiac Surgery Program.  While there we perform open heart surgeries with a focus on teaching local surgeons and healthcare professionals the skills they need to perform these surgeries independently and provide postoperative care. Along with teaching, we worked directly with the hospital administration assisting them with the logistics of establishing the program.

10) January 2023 Team of 20 CR-OP members traveled to King Faisal Hospital for a successful week of performing cardiac surgeries on Rwandan patients.

9) Winter 2023 Qatar airways has announced they will be sponsoring the CR-OP team’s flights to Rwanda in January, June and October of 2023!

8) Fall 2022 Preparation and planning for the next trip in January 2023.

7) May 2022 Adult and pediatric surgical teams spent a total of two weeks at King Faisal Hospital erforming cardiac surgeries on Rwandan patients.

6) March 2022 Site visit to King Faisal Hospital by members of the CR-OP team to prepare for the mission trip in May.

5) CANCELLED – Because of the emergence of COVID  trip was rescheduled for MAY 2022.

4) Winter 2020 Halifax cardiac surgery team assembled for anticipated Rwanda visit in September.  This would be the first mission of the 3 year commitment of assisting Rwanda in developing their first ever autonomous Cardiac Surgery Program.

3) Winter 2020 MOU completed between Dalhousie and University of Rwanda.

2) Fall 2019 Site visit to King Faisal Hospital by Dr. Stewart, Dr. Horne, Dr. Fagan, Lance Mitchell, and Adrienne Benoit.

1) Spring 2019 Concept and first contact. 

DONATIONS

Participants in this CR-OP initiative are on a volunteer basis.

Donations go towards the purchase of medical supplies for the mission and to help cover some of the cost of flying some of our team to Kigali, Rwanda.  Each team member pays for their own traveling expenses associated with flying to Kigali such as lodging while traveling, meals while traveling, ground transportation while traveling, immunizations and all other associated travel expenses.  Allied health team members get some help from donations with the cost of flight tickets and each doctor is responsible for their own flights.  The entire team volunteers their time both during the extensive planning of the missions and while on the mission itself.

Our team works directly with the local developing cardiac surgery team by performing heart surgeries and assisting the local team in the development of the Rwanda Cardiac Surgery program.  This includes education and mentorship while on the mission.  Together we focus on developing the local cardiac surgery team to eventually perform these surgeries for their population on a permanent basis.

With your support, we can save more lives.

A contribution in any amount really does matter. Your support has the power to make a difference in the lives of many Rwandans. 

Thank you for choosing to donate and support our mission to Rwanda. 

If you would like more information about the impact or to contribute to this important project, please contact:

Dr. Keir Stewart, CR-OP Director at keirstewart1954@gmail.com