Ethiopian baby to return home after live-saving heart, kidney surgery in Israel

An 11-month-old Ethiopian baby will leave Israel tomorrow after undergoing successful heart and kidney surgery organized by an Israeli NGO and two hospitals.

The boy, Ablakew, was diagnosed with congenital heart disease at the age of one month, and Ethiopian doctors told his parents he would be dead at the age of six months unless he underwent open heart surgery, according to a statement by Save a Child’s Heart.

Devastated, the family eventually contacted the Israel-based charity, which found an American donor, Jane Clement from the House of Destiny, and flew Ablakew to Israel, where he underwent surgery at Wolfson hospital in Holon on September 24, 2019.

However, doctors then told the parents their son had an additional kidney problem which would require surgery. Save a Child’s Heart helped arrange that operation, performed at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov hospital.

“Ablakew was brought to Israel with a complex heart defect,” says Dr. Alona Raucher Sternfeld, head of the pediatric cardiology unit at Wolfson. “He was four months old and weight was less than four kilograms. After his heart surgery he recovered very nicely and gained weight. When we discovered that Ablakew suffered from a kidney malformation we understood that he needs a kidney operation as well.”

“I cannot explain in words how happy I am,” Ablakew’s mother says as she starts packing and preparing for their journey back home, to the baby’s father and sister.