The Gold Star Cardiac
Surgery Initiative
A permanent open heart surgery programme at Gracespring Hospitals, Lagos —
funded, case by case, for Nigerians who need cardiac surgery and cannot afford it.
The need
Across Nigeria, children born with congenital heart disease and adults with valvular, rheumatic and other acquired heart conditions can be cured by surgery. Yet open heart surgery has remained out of reach for most — there are few centres, waits for visiting missions are long, and travelling abroad costs far more than most families will ever have.
Without surgery, treatable conditions become progressive heart failure, reduced exercise capacity, missed work and schooling, and preventable death.
The Gold Star Cardiac Surgery Initiative exists to close that gap for people who cannot pay: clinical need decides who is helped, and sponsorship follows.
Who we help
One criterion decides eligibility: a Nigerian who needs cardiac surgery and cannot afford it.
Children
Born with congenital heart disease — including septal defects, patent ductus arteriosus and Tetralogy of Fallot.
Adults
With acquired heart disease — rheumatic and degenerative valve disease, and other conditions correctable by surgery.
Assessed clinically
Every case is selected on clinical grounds and documented before any sponsor is matched to it.
Supported fully
Sponsored patients and their families are asked for nothing towards the cost of their care.
What makes it a standing service
Open heart surgery needs more than a surgeon. It needs theatres equipped for cardiopulmonary bypass, an intensive care unit that can manage a patient through the first critical days, and a hospital around it — imaging, laboratory, pharmacy, blood supply and nursing.
Gracespring Hospitals provides that platform, and the cardiac team is permanently based there: surgeons, anaesthetists, perfusionists, intensivists, nurses and allied staff who work together case after case.
Because the team stays, the programme is not limited to a surgical window. Patients are operated on when they are ready, and reviewed by the same clinicians long afterwards.
The care pathway
Every sponsored patient follows the same documented pathway, from first assessment to long-term review.
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
How sponsorship is governed
Sponsors are entitled to know that their money did what it was given for, and patients are entitled to be treated with dignity. Both are protected by the way the programme is run.
Clinical need comes first
Case selection is clinically driven and documented before any sponsor is matched. No financial interest influences a clinical decision.
Funds are tied to a named case
Each sponsorship is linked to a defined patient journey with a documented cost breakdown and is reconciled case by case.
Consent governs every story
No photographs, name or story is published without written consent. Patients may choose to be named, or remain anonymous.
Sponsors receive structured reporting
A pre-surgery summary, a recovery update, a medical outcome summary, and an annual report for continuing partners
Fund an Operation that would not otherwise happen.
₦15,000,000 covers one patient's complete journey - from first
echocardiogram to final follow-up.