Two-Year-Old Palestinian "Miracle Boy" Returns Home After More Than Two Months in Critical Condition in Israel

HOLON, Israel, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hamza Ali Mohammed was born with life-threatening congenital heart disease and had his first surgery as an infant. The Save a Child's Heart (SACH) medical team decided a few months ago that he needed a second surgery to survive.

On February 24, 2020, Hamza underwent open heart surgery at Wolfson Medical Center (WMC) in Holon, Israel, by the SACH volunteer medical team.

His recovery from this surgery was very complicated. "We tried to extubate Hamza a few times after his surgery, but he had a hard time breathing by himself. We had to connect him to an ECMO machine, and it kept him alive for a few weeks," said Dr Racheli Sion Sarid, a senior physician at the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Wolfson.

In addition to the huge challenge of keeping Hamza alive through this period, the medical team had to face another major difficulty: Hamza's parents, who went home to the West Bank city of Ramallah for a short visit to see Hamza's siblings, could not return to Israel due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

"The whole medical team in the Pediatric Cardiology unit became his parents," said Dr Ahmed Amer, a Pediatric Resident at WMC. Dr Amer, an Israeli Arab physician who is part of the SACH medical team, became the main contact person for Hamza's parents since he speaks Arabic. "We all became his family. The nurses did shifts to hold him in their arms and play with him. We did not keep him alone for a minute. A child his age and in his condition needs to be hugged and loved in order to recover and get stronger, and that's exactly what we did."

Dr Amer spoke with Hamza's parents every day, sent them pictures and videos and updated them on his recovery.

As Hamza's condition improved, he was able to communicate with his parents through video calls. "The first few times he saw them on video he began crying and it took us a long time to calm him down," said Dr Amer, "But he got used to it and we even celebrated his birthday a couple of weeks ago together with his parents on video."

Hamza is now walking, laughing, and playing, and soon he will be ready to return home to his family in Ramallah. The medical team at the hospital are preparing to say goodbye, knowing they will never forget him and his story.

"His story is amazing," says Dr. Sarid. "It is a story about a medical team who fought tirelessly for the life of a critically ill child, a story of a brave little boy who survived against all odds, and a story of people, of human beings, helping each other regardless of their origin and religion. This is the story of Save a Child's Heart."

About Save a Child's Heart
SACH is an Israeli-based international non-profit organization that has provided care to more than 5,400 children from 62 countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and South America and trained more than 120 medical professionals from these countries.

SACH is committed to the health and welfare of all children, regardless nationality, religion, color, gender, or financial situation.

Media Contact:
David Litwac
301.785.0720
[email protected]

SOURCE Save a Child's Heart Foundation