Open heart surgery,
performed in Nigeria,
for people who could
never have paid for it.
The Gold Star Cardiac Surgery Initiative funds open heart surgery for
Nigerians — children born with heart defects and adults with acquired
heart disease — whose families cannot meet the cost of care. Surgery
takes place at Gracespring Hospitals in Lagos, performed by a permanent,
locally based cardiac team.
The Gold Star Cardiac Surgery Initiative funds open heart surgery for Nigerians — children born with heart defects and adults with acquired heart disease — whose families cannot meet the cost of care. Surgery takes place at Gracespring Hospitals in Lagos, performed by a permanent, locally based cardiac team.
open heart operations completed
in our first surgical series
of those operations funded
by charitable sponsors
asked of the families of
sponsored patients
the full documented cost of
sponsoring one patient
Our first three patients came through surgery and went home.
Gracespring Hospitals has commenced an open heart surgery service. Our cardiac team has completed its first three congenital heart repairs. All three patients recovered well and have returned home to their families.
Every one of those operations was paid for in full by charitable sponsors introduced through the Foundation. Nothing was asked of the families — not for the diagnostics, not for the surgery, not for intensive care, and not for the follow-up that continues after discharge.
A standing service, not a visiting mission.
Much of the open heart surgery available in Nigeria depends on visiting teams who arrive, operate for a week or two, and leave. Families wait for the next window. Follow-up is difficult once the team has gone.
The team is based here
A Nigerian, locally based multidisciplinary cardiac team — surgeons, anaesthetists, perfusionists, intensivists and nurses.
Surgery is planned around clinical need
Cases are scheduled when the patient is ready, not when a visiting team happens to be in the country.
Follow-up does not end at discharge
The same team remains available for review and longer-term care, months and years after the operation.
Capacity stays in the country
Every sponsored operation strengthens a permanent Nigerian cardiac service.
Every heart deserves a chance to
live, grow and fulfil its God-given
potential.
No one should be lost to a condition that surgery can correct.
What a sponsorship pays for
Sponsorship covers a patient's whole journey, not a single procedure. Each case carries a documented cost breakdown, and funds are reconciled case by case.
Assessment
Echocardiography, imaging, laboratory investigations and specialist cardiac review.
Surgery
Open heart surgery, theatre and anaesthetic care, cardiac consumables and blood support.
Intensive care
ICU management, ward recovery, medication and repeat investigations until discharge.
Recovery at home
Six to twelve months of follow-up with the same team, and support for the family throughout.
Inside the programme
Theatre, intensive care and recovery at Gracespring Hospitals. Photographspublished with the written consent of the patients and families concerned.
Team brief at the bedside before a case begins.
Open heart surgery under way in theatre.
The first hours after surgery, in intensive care.
Breathing excerises begin within days of surgery.
Daily review by the cardiac team.
Recovery on the ward, a few days after
Our first sponsors
The Foundation connects sponsors with patients who need corrective cardiac surgery and cannot meet the cost of their care. These organisations funded our first series.
Stand with a patient who simply needs a chance to live.
Sponsor a single patient, or fund a programme of ten, twenty ormore. We will design the partnership around what works for you.